Take A Chance On Me
by knittingchampionofnarnia
Summary: Lonely Jasper Whitlock is forced to sign up for Stage Crew for Community Service. He meets and is accepted by many people, but everyone has secrets and problems. AU. AH.
1. My 'Delicate Birth'

**A/M: Hey guys. I'm back!...ish. I've been toying with this idea for a while and I'm really happy with this first chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Well…I think I own Twilight…thank God…I KNOW I don't own really…anything…I OWN A DISCMAN. It's way too rad for you to understand.**

Full Summary: The lonely Jasper Whitlock needs community service hours in order to graduate. His guidance counselor tells him he must do Stage Crew at a school in Port Angeles. When he is accepted into the tight-knit group what will he learn about his fellow "techies".

Take A Chance On Me: Chapter One

As Befitted My 'Delicate Birth'

Jasper Whitlock was not surprised in the least when he received a pass to his guidance counselor on a surprisingly sunny Tuesday morning. In fact, Jasper Whitlock had been anticipating it.

He knew he was going to be called down to the office because he was missing a significant amount of college information. Jasper Whitlock seemed like the type of person who knew what they wanted to do the moment they popped out of the womb and from then on, their whole life had revolved that thought.

If this were to be true about Jasper Whitlock, he would have been born high as a kite.

Jasper Whitlock was tall, nearing 6'2", with a proportionate body. He had blond hair and blue eyes that were always "the size of the moon". He always had on a pair of baggy jeans, a royal blue hoodie and a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses.

Despite his outward appearance and his seemingly endless drug use, once you got to know Jasper Whitlock, it was nearly impossible to give up on him. He had an addicting personality, which Mrs. Emma Delancy worked continuously to set free and release from drugs and masks.

As Jasper Whitlock sat in a padded chair and awaited his guidance meeting he folded the blue slip of paper into the smallest triangle he could manage. He did this whenever he had a spare bit of paper and her was nervous. A nervous habit if you will.

As the time between 3rd and 4th period drew to a close more people ran through the crammed guidance office to get to the Gym.

Jasper recognized a few different people who he had played roles in drug exchanges, even some people who he had gotten high with at parties and in the woods. Though they had pretended to be Jasper's best friend for the moment to get high but at school, in the halls, they did not even acknowledge his presence.

He found himself to be an outcast in that sense. He had a lot of acquaintances out of school when no one else had to know they talked, but in school he was always alone. He never had anyone to sit at a lunch table with so he always ended up walking off campus to the market square where he would smoke instead of eating.

Jasper Whitlock did not like this existence, but sometimes you don't get to like what you do, you just have to do it.

"Jasper?" Emma Delancy's voice called from her doorway. "Wanna come in?"

According to Jasper's visible stereotype, one would assume his thoughts would be something along the lines of 'Let's get this fucking shit done with already' however, Jasper's real thoughts were something along the lines of, 'You are so brave, thank you for helping me all these years'.

Jasper nodded and stood up. He placed the pass in his pocket knowing he wouldn't need it in Emma's office.

Emma Delancy, guidance counselor extraordinaire, hadn't made Jasper Whitlock feel nervous since his freshman year. How could she? All she ever did was help him and her room was the most comforting place there was. There were three different chairs which were all very comfortable – Jasper had sat in all of them multiple times just to see which was the most comfortable, not one of them won.

However, he had a different chair for a different occasion. Emma had never really decoded his seating patterns but she knew that there had to be a method to his madness.

As Jasper walked in and saw many college banners and posters – none for quitting drugs or smoking, though there was a Safe Rides application form bin on her desk. Even in a small town like Forks, there is a Safe Rides program. They had so few students, they needed to keep them all alive.

He sat down in his shame chair. He had a shame chair, it was the fluffy blue one the farthest away from Emma's desk where she sat. There was also the problems chair, which was closest to the door and a box of tissues. The last chair was the miscellaneous chair and that's all it was used for. After he had created this chair system he would usually sit in the miscellaneous chair and blabber one period ever Thursday afternoon during his free 9th period.

Emma Delancy had never quite understood why Jasper would choose to spend time with her – time that could easily be spent with his family, friends, even drugs (though she was supposed to be blissfully ignorant of that) – on a Thursday afternoon during the last period. Emma knew Jasper had a car.

It was just one of those things she had never quite understood about Jasper Whitlock.

After both Emma and Jasper were perfectly comfortable, Emma began talking. Jasper knew he was in trouble. She never called him down with a pass unless he was in trouble. She could always wait until Thursday, 9th period.

Jasper Whitlock knew what he was in trouble _for_. That was the worst thing, he didn't like when Emma had to point out his faults for him when he knew them.

"I suppose you know why you're here?" She asked him knowing that he hated her to point out his faults.

"Will community service hours _really_ cause a college to not accept me?"

Yes, Jasper Whitlock knew why Emma Delancy had called him down to the office on this Tuesday morning. Jasper Whitlock also knew what Emma Delancy's answer would be.

"Yes."

Jasper groaned and sat back in his chair. He ha done a lot of community service in his freshman and sophomore year working with children at the church but when it had become a competition more than anything else, he had pulled away from the only safe social activity he had. Neither Emma nor Jasper considered smoking pot with some popular kids on the weekends to be neither safe nor social.

"You missed a whole year on your transcript!" Emma insisted. Jasper assumed this is what most mothers were like, nudging at their child's work, or lack thereof.

Jasper slumped but refrained from crossing his arms like a child. "I'll go back and as Father John for another job there." He knew he wouldn't and he knew Emma knew that he wouldn't.

Emma shook her head. "I've already arranged something else for you." She said. "You need variety so I signed you up for stage crew."

Jasper blinked once. _We have a stage crew?_ He thought to himself. _We have a stage?_ "What stage crew?" He asked completely flabbergasted by this fact.

Emma smiled knowingly, "There's a public high school in Port Angeles that takes auditions from our students and so in return we help them with stage crew. We have a very dedicated bunch of kids, they'll make you feel welcome."

If anyone else were to suggest that a group of kids Jasper Whitlock didn't know would make him feel welcome he would laugh in their face and stomp away. However, Jasper was talking to Emma and he knew Emma wouldn't put him in a place where he'd be unhappy.

"The stage manager knows you're coming and so does the director. I'll tell you more on Thursday." Jasper slowly nodded but did not move.

"Is that all?" He asked.

Everyone has somewhere special to be. Everyone has a sanctuary where they always feel wanted and loved. Be it the gym during volleyball practice or your bedroom when you're home alone. Everyone savors these places and relishes them, inhaling and loving them forever.

For Jasper Whitlock, this place was Emma Delancy's office. He didn't like the idea of him being rushed out of the room he loved the most. It made him feel like a burden.

"Unless you wanted to talk about something." She confirmed.

He shut his eyes and shook his head. He stood up and tried not to glare at her.

"See you on Thursday, Jasper." She said. She was now distracted by the computer and was reading very carefully.

Jasper didn't say anything as opened the door and left the room.

He walked through the offices with anger burning him. He did not want to be angry but he was horrified by the way Emma had treated him; and on top of it all he had to do stage crew for community service!

He walked through the main hallway having no idea what his final destination would be. There was one music room for the ten or fifteen students who chose to take a music class and there were two art rooms for everyone else.

He peered into the first art room used by freshman and sophomores. Nobody was in the room this period. Not even the teacher. He thought about going in and lying on a table and sleeping till the bell – or a teacher, or students – woke him.

The next art room over had a few juniors in it who were laughing and having a good old time but there were also seniors. There were no junior/senior art classes that mixed so he assumed they had come to finish a project during their free period. Jasper leaned on the door and watched them for just a moment.

One girl, a short girl whom Jasper did not know, was showing off her artwork to a very interested Edward Masen – a senior who Jasper didn't know very well. Next to Edward sat a girl with long, smooth brown hair that made a curtain between her face and Edward as she drew on a piece of paper.

"And this," the short girl said pulling out the next piece. "Is for the beating scene." Jasper blinked a few times trying to decide if he had actually heard that or not.

"What's the rectangle?" Edward asked her, pointing out something on the picture.

The girl glanced down at the paper trying to locate the rectangle he was speaking of. "Oh! That!" She said noticing it now. "That's the tree they lean against! And I can't decide if it's made from the piano bench or two upside-down chairs." Edward nodded as if this made complete and total sense to him.

"So basically, there's no building it's all a matter of props and objects of the time?" Edward clarified.

The girl nodded. "Yah," she said. "There are no walls like in the original because the back wall is made of mirrors," Edward nodded understanding this foreign language. "Though the two mirrors here," she pointed to the picture. "And here are doors like in the original. Remember because everyone takes their first and last entrance out of the because the curtain opens during the last song but the problem with mirrors is…" The girl babbled on about the pros and cons of mirrors and Edward just sat taking it all in.

The other girl, with the long brown hair, seemed so detached from everything else in the room as she sketched and drew.

Jasper glanced at the clock in the room. The period was almost over. He walked away from the art room still trying to decode the secret wordings of the three friends. The bell rang and he waded through shorter students and even a few taller students. He kept his head down the entire time. He just wasn't feeling well.

"I don't even know who Jasper Whitlock _is_!" A girl's voice exclaimed in exasperation. "Edward! He's a senior, right?" The girl's voice got lost in a screaming fight between two freshman girls who simply had not grown up yet.

"BITCH! That's my BOYFRIEND!" One girl shouted.

"SHUT UP! He hooked up with ME!" The other one shouted.

"Guys, you're making a scene." The third wheel whispered. She obviously had not felt the effects of this boy's whoring personality. She looked better for it. She was the prettiest among the three friends but at the same time she was far more conservative wearing jeans when the others wore shorts that allowed Jasper to see the first girl's underwear.

_Ew_.

Jasper shuddered and continued to walk to his Statistics class though other people stopped to watch like it was a crime scene or a car accident. He scoffed and muttered, "Vultures."

He glanced out a huge glass window as he walked and saw it was drizzling slightly. He hoped for thunder and lightning he liked driving in it. It gave him a thrill but he knew he could drive through it without a problem.

Everyone else would be driving like old Grannies.

Jasper shook his head and smiled to himself thinking about Mike What's-his-face a centimeter from the steering wheel in complete Granny-Garb. This image made him think of – for some reason or another – Alan Rickman dressed in Neville Longbottom's grandmother's clothing and at this he had to fight to keep a full out laugh down. He didn't want to seem _too_ crazy.

Statistics class was alright. Jasper got a test back that he didn't even remember taking, but apparently he knew the material very well and got a 98 percent.

The rest of the day went by in a similar fashion, he went to his English class where he talked about a chapter in the book that the class hadn't read yet and he narrowly escaped a detention. He blamed his love of books – which actually did exist he didn't just SparkNotes the wrong chapters.

In Music, where Jasper played the guitar, Ms. Cullen quietly slipped him a packet that had the title **PORT ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL STAGE CREW INFORMATION PACKET**. She didn't say anything other than "Bring it on Saturday." before she went to assist a frightened looking exchange student whose Handel research had come up with a bunch of porn pop-ups.

Jasper pretended not to notice the offending packet and continued to strum the chords for the concert in two months, but when the bell rang he silently tucked the packet into his bag and moved on to physics.

After physics – a class he had with complete blonde bimbos who constantly asked him for pot which really irked Jasper. Why would he pot to a school the police chief's daughter attended? – he headed out into the parking lot. He had ninth period free every day so he got to go home early.

The rain had subsided to Jasper's displeasure but he drove home anyway. Only a few other seniors were as lucky as I was to have ninth period free (including Mike What's-his-face who – despite the lack of rain was still driving a centimeter from the steering wheel like an old Granny.

When he stopped at the one stop light on the way to his house, his bag toppled forwards and the stage crew packet nearly fell out. The top of it was clearly visible and it screamed at Jasper like a thousand bullhorns.

As the light turned to green and a car behind him honked their horn, Jasper Whitlock tapped his fingers against the steering wheel and pushed down on the gas pedal and remembered what he had once said all the time to his mother in the car:

"Green, green, green for go, go, go."

**A/M: Okay so, that's the first chapter. I can't wait to hear what people think of it. I hope everyone liked my interpretation of Jasper Whitlock!!!!!**

**Oh and everyone will use their original surnames:**

**Jasper Whitlock**

**Mary "Alice" Brandon**

**Edward Masen**

**Bella Swan**

**Emmett McCarty**

**Rosalie Hale**

**Oh and the whole Esme Cullen as a Music Teacher will be thoroughly explained later.**

**So. Yah. Please review? Maybe? Pweese? –cuteface–**


	2. Our Anecdotic Review

**Disclaimer: Me? Own Twilight? I don't even own the money I have! Don't ask.**

**A/M: Yay! I remember why Twilight's such a great place to write stories in…EVERYONE reads it thus you get a bajillion reviews! Ick, I know it's just a lot of exposition but the action will start next chapter.**

Take A Chance On Me: Chapter Two

Journey Through Our Anecdotic Review

The bell rang releasing students from their classes. Jasper exited his 8th period physics class and walked down the hallway in high spirits.

Thursday afternoon was Jasper's favorite part of the week. Instead of going home early, he would go and talk to Emma Delancy, his guidance counselor.

He walked down to the office in a grand mood, despite his peripheral glance at the rain dripping from the sky lightly. It was always raining in the little town of Forks, Washington. He wasn't very fond of it. When you've lived in places like San Diego and New York – both large cities – coming to little, rainy Forks, Washington was a bit of a culture shock. Not that Jasper had a very good memory of San Diego and New York.

He neared the guidance office and walked to Emma's office. When he walked up to it he nearly walked into the closed door. Emma's door was never closed on Thursday afternoons. He stared at the wood, dumbfounded. A closed door meant she was already talking to someone.

Mrs. Cope, Emma's secretary, called out to him, "Jasper!" she said, Jasper turned to acknowledge her. "Emma told me to give you this!" She held up a folded piece of paper.

A note. All she left for him was a note?

He dragged himself like a zombie to Mrs. Cope's desk. She handed him the note and smiled. He offered something resembling a smile in return and took the note.

As he left the office, Jasper Whitlock didn't know what to feel. Dejection, rejection, anger, sadness. They all seemed to fit perfectly.

Jasper Whitlock was proud of his simpleminded qualities. He never over-thought – and he rarely thought at all, he normally just did things despite the possible consequences. He was skilled at blocking out emotions, he was quick to forgive and never let anything get under his skin.

Emma Delancy, however, had always been the woman Jasper had never hid from. He had always been able to let his emotions run wild and get the better of him in her presence she was just that kind of person. Jasper knew she knew how much she meant to him, so why – how – was she being so blasé towards him in the past week. First on Tuesday, dismissing him like they hardly knew each other and now today.

Jasper walked through the gym towards the closest door out of the building. When he reached it, he pocketed the note and walked out into the drizzle towards his car. He opened the door to the average, every-day car and sat in it. On the seat next to him the stage crew packet still waited to be read.

Rain tap-danced on the windshield of the cold car and Jasper watched it, inhaling and exhaling therapeutically.

Finally, when he had gotten his emotions in control, he produced the note from Emma and read it silently to himself.

_Jasper,_

_Sorry I had to cancel, a student came to me and it was an emergency._

_For Saturday: Meet Ms. Cullen, Alice Brandon and Edward Masen at the gym by 9 AM. You will proceed with them from there to Port Angeles High School where the play will take place. Ms. Cullen asked me to remind you to have the permission slip signed when you get there._

_I really am sorry,_

_Emma_

Forks, Washington is small and rainy and boring. Simply nothing exciting happens. _What emotional wreck could a student have been in that she had to cancel her weekly appointment with me?_ Jasper thought. As he turned the ignition in his car he realized he wasn't being fair. If he had a breakdown of some sorts on Monday during 6th period he wouldn't want to be denied counseling simply because someone else had that period blocked off for scheduling issues.

He stopped at the stoplight and waited for the green light. He tapped his fingers on the wheel and silently wondered what was for dinner and if he had any weed left for tonight. He didn't have anything special planned so he decided he'd get rid of his pot seeing as recreational smoking was out for a month at least.

He pulled into the driveway and closed his eyes for a moment. The rain was still doing its elegant dance on the car and the pavement around him.

He opened his eyes and sighed. He reached over to the seat next to him and grabbed his backpack and the informational packet.

He entered the silent house, everyone was still at work or school, and trotted up the stairs to his room. When he reached the second floor he stepped over various toys that had been left lying about. Even a soccer ball got in his way. He decided he'd clean up before anyone got home.

Jasper walked to what seemed to be an average door and opened it, the staircase behind it led up to the third floor where his bedroom – along with a bathroom – was.

The idea of an attic bedroom had always been a romanticized thought that had captivated Jasper and when he had moved into this house he had begged for the room on the third floor. Since then, he had gone through various stages in this room and found he had grown up in this room more than anywhere else.

Best of all, he had been able to personalize it. He had stayed long enough that he felt like it was really _his room_ and not the _guest room where Jasper sleeps_. This was one of the many reasons he connected to the family as well as he did. The room had never really been used it was mainly used for storage of baby supplies which later needed to be doubled anyways so they gave the room up. They bought him his own bed, desk and dresser and allowed him to make the room his.

It was his favorite place in Forks. In anywhere. It was his favorite place in general.

Jasper placed his bag next to the door still holding the packet separately. He made his way over to his desk and checked the middle drawer on the left-hand side. Satisfied with what he found he closed it again and sat down at the desk and began to plow through the packet.

He didn't really process any information about the show other than they were doing the musical _Little Women_ and Jasper would be occupied on the weekends from 10 to 6 on Saturdays and 10 to 3 on Sundays for the next two or three months.

He was terrified.

However, despite this terrifying and horrifying news, he signed the packet agreeing to the terms etc. and left it open on his desk so that he wouldn't forget it. He looked at the time, it was 2:30, the other students at Forks High would be getting out soon and Jasper had to go and pick "sister" up.

He plodded down the stairs to get rid of some of the mess in the hall. He threw the many transformers pieces into Sam and Eric's room and picked up the soccer ball that had mysteriously made its way upstairs.

As he passed through the kitchen, soccer ball in hand, he looked at the phone on the beautiful blue wall. The message light was blinking softly. Jasper decided to leave it since there was no way that any of the messages could be for him. He considered taking an apple from the fruit bowl on the darker blue cabinet but refrained remember he was going to be driving in 5 minutes anyways.

He went outside again, not bothering with one of the many umbrellas in the stand next to the door and walked over to the garage, which was separate from the house.

Jasper liked living in one of the more expensive houses in town, what he didn't like was that having a third floor and a detached garage signified one was wealthier than their neighbor. It was so appalling to him after having lived in bigger houses at the age of 6 and 9 houses that where across the country from each other, two different cities that both had a wealthy population, the wealthy population owning houses with 3 to 6 bathrooms and 8 bedrooms, a finished basement and attic and all the amenities.

Forks was definitely a culture shock.

He threw the soccer ball in the garage and headed over to his car once again. He backed out and drove to the school to pick her up.

When he reached the school, he pulled up near the front and sat and waited to be joined. He looked out his window at a silver Volvo that had three people standing around it. It was the same trio from the art room. The girl with black hair sat on the hood of the car delicately so she wouldn't leave any marks on the hood.

The other two, Edward and the girl with brown hair, leaned against the car. They seemed to be discussing something very quietly and secretly. The girl on the hood didn't appear to feel left out she just sat there watching people. It almost looked like she was waiting for someone.

The door to the passenger seat and the back seat opened, Jasper turned around, "I don't give rides!" He scolded.

"She's coming over, Jasper, Jeeze-Louise!" Angela said sitting next to me and buckling up. The girl – Nessie Masen, Edward's 14 year-old sister – looked out the window at her brother.

"Look at them! Just look at them! It's pathetic, really!" Nessie shook her head and changed the topic. "Can you believe that Odyssey quiz? I don't think we even read book 5 yet!"

From there, the two girls jabbered to each other about school and the fight that had broken out on Tuesday. It was still a "hot topic" apparently.

When we pulled into the driveway, the girls nearly dove out of the car and sprinted into the house

Jasper followed them slowly. He quietly ascended the stairs to his room ignoring the pop music coming from Angela's room.

Angela Webber was not really Jasper's sister. In the same vain, Sam and Eric Webber were not Jasper's little brother's either. In addition, Melanie and Thomas Webber were not Jasper's parents biological or otherwise.

Jasper Whitlock was a foster care child. He had lived in three foster care homes in his life and was found to be the perfect, ideal foster child. However, when it came time to adopting people had their doubts about the future. The Webbers had cared for him since he was 11 and the idea of adoption had never been raised. Melanie and Thomas already had three kids to put through college and Jasper could get all sorts of scholarships due to his lack of biological parents. He just needed a place to live and go to school.

The family hadn't talked much about what would happen on April 17th when Jasper turned 18 but they hoped they would keep him until he went to college. He couldn't imagine transferring schools in the final quarter of his senior year. That would just be too awkward for words.

Finding that there was nothing better to do, Jasper pulled out his homework and started to work on it. He decided he'd tackle the hard things first so he took his physics from the bookshelf and began taking thorough notes on chapter seven.

When he was done with physics he moved quickly to statistics not bothering to stop and get that apple he was still yearning for. He knew that once he got up he'd loose all sense of concentration; he couldn't afford that when his whole weekend had been murdered by community service.

About half way through his statistics homework Melanie arrived home with Sam and Eric who got the soccer ball out from the garage and kicked it around in the muddy backyard.

Jasper heard Melanie greeting Angela and Nessie on the second floor and she asked them about dinner. Next, she went up to talk to him.

Melanie knocked on the doorframe and peered inside his room. Jasper swiveled around in the chair to face her. "Hey Melanie," Jasper said, greeting her.

"Hi, Jasper." She replied. "How's it going?

He shrugged, "Okay, I guess."

Melanie frowned slightly. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Emma cancelled today." Jasper's disappointment rang clear in his voice.

Melanie took a few steps inside the room and walked over to Jasper. "Oh honey, I'm sorry."

Jasper loved Melanie more than his two previous foster mothers; she always treated him like he was one of them, like he belonged. Laura, his first foster mother, had insisted he call her Laura not "Mom" or "Mommy" insisting that it "looked bad". Georgia hadn't been much better treating him like some charity case, towing him around to every place that might care and introducing him as "My foster son, Jasper". Melanie let Jasper call her whatever he wanted to ranging from "Maman" to "Mels" and she introduced him as "Jasper" no more information needed. He felt like he was theirs. Like they really did like him and he was really wanted.

Jasper shrugged, "Eh," he said. "It's okay."

"Well, do you want anything special for dinner? The everyone else says pizza but I can make you something different if you want." Melanie offered

Jasper shrugged again, "Pizza's fine." He said. Melanie nodded looking a little unsure. "Seriously, Mel, it's good."

"Okay." She said and began her descent to the bathroom downstairs where she'd take a shower and then change into non-professional clothing.

As Melanie started to walk out the door and downstairs, Jasper turned back to the desk and the stage crew packet caught his eye once again. "Hey, Mel?" He called to her. She came back up the steps and appeared at his doorway again. "Uh, Emma told me I need to do community service, she – I chose stage crew but I need a guardian to sign it…" he trailed off.

"Sign what, Jasper?"

"Oh!" Jasper said. The packet had become something that always seemed to be staring him down, despite the fact it was some paper and ink. It had been in his mind since Tuesday even though he had made sure to lock it in his car and put his backpack on top of it. "Uh, it's a permission slip and information packet."

She smiled, "Let me read the packet first." She entered the room once again and took the packet from Jasper's hand. "I'll call for delivery in a little bit." She said leaving the room once again.

"I can go get it if you want!" Jasper called down. He knew it would earn him points, and he did like to drive more than nearly anything else.

"Alright!" Melanie replied.

By the time Jasper had finished his statistics homework, his standard history homework, and was halfway through his advanced history homework it was time to get the pizza Melanie had called for 10 minutes ago.

Jasper pulled up to what the citizens of the town of Forks referred to as "The Pizzeria" as they attempted to add a little spice to the local pizza parlor.

When he entered he was surprised to see who was working there. As he gradually made his way up to the counter he saw Mike What's-his-face loading a pizza into the oven. Jasper thought this profession to suit him just fine seeing as he couldn't do anything else – including drive. Working at the counter, however, was the girl with brown hair from the art room on Tuesday.

"Hi, what can I do for you?" She asked.

She was pretty enough but an obvious virgin in both her body and mind, she obviously didn't know _how_ pretty she was but it worked for her. She made a good first impression but she was _not_ Jasper's type whatsoever.

"I'm here to pick up a pizza for Webber." He declared.

The girl turned around to the table in between the oven and the counter and grabbed one of the closer boxes checking the name on the side. She slid it on the counter and smiled, "That'll be 19 dollars and 72 cents." She said.

As Jasper dug the money out of his wallet he thought of ways he could ask her name without sounding like he was interested in her. He handed her the twenty and picked up the pizza. "Just put the change in the tip jar." He nodded in the direction of the mason jar set up on the counter without a lid. She warily slipped the 28 cents into the tip jar. "Thanks…uh…"

"Oh. Bella. I'm Bella." She said looking a little flustered.

Jasper nodded. "Bella, then. Thank you, Bella."

When Jasper got home with the pizza everyone sat at the kitchen table eating happily. Nessie and Angela retold the story of the unfair Odyssey quiz once again to Melanie and Thomas while Sam and Eric constructed a leaning tower of pepperonis. The two adults listened to the girls' story and offered advice and scolded the twins for playing with their food. No one said anything to Jasper though.

So, when he was done he quietly slipped out of the kitchen – placing his plate in the dishwasher – and took the stairs two at a time to his "tower in the sky".

He finished up his Advanced History assignment and retired his homework for the night. He still had French and English to work on but he could perfect he future tense –re verbs before school and lunch was meant for catching up on English homework.

As he swiveled back in his chair he reached for the middle drawer on the left side of the desk. He hesitated and retracted his hand. _Who knows?_ He thought to himself. _I might need it later more than I need it now._

Instead, he climbed up onto the window seat drugless and stared out at the faintest trace of a moon that could barely be seen beneath the cloud cover.

Just after he had moved into the attic room, a social worker had come to do her one-month check-in and was appalled that he had requested to live in the _attic_ of all places. Melanie had tried to explain that it was finished and not masochistic in any sense. He had been sitting on this very window seat when she burst in to find a poster already hanging on the wall. It had shocked her to say the least to see how at home he was already.

Jasper had never had a problem with social workers and he was always very patient and answered all the questions like a good boy. However, when the social worker asked him why he wanted to be up here he could only shrug.

"Why wouldn't I want to be up here? It's a nice room."

On big and important exams they have "accepted answers" apparently the whole shrugging of the shoulders and inability to explain his desire was not an accepted answer.

"You don't have to sleep up here, you know," she had said. "No one can hurt you here." Jasper hadn't liked that idea at all. It had been the least of his concerns when picking out this room; he couldn't believe she'd just drag his father into the matter of choosing a bedroom.

"It wasn't a psychological decision," Jasper explained slowly so that she would get it the first time around. He usually liked social workers because they had to be strong for themselves and for others, they had to be very dedicated but this social worker just seemed to be in it for the PhD and the money. "In the movies, the attic room is the most coveted. It's really cool." He gazed around the room as if to prove a point. "Since I was 5 I've been smothered by social workers and potential mothers, I really like Melanie and I don't want to get in her way sometimes, and other times I just wanna be alone – like any other normal teenager – and other than that? It's _really_ cool!"

The social worker had shaken her head as if not to believe what Jasper said was true.

While the social worker talked to Melanie, Jasper had decided to move from the bedroom to the porch swing outside as he watched the rain - the sheer amount of it simply baffled the young boy who had hardly known anything but sunshine.

The social worker was thanked and bid adieu. As she walked down to the steps to her car, Jasper stood up and walked to the edge of the stairs. "Excuse me!" He called, the social worker turned around anxiously looking hopeful for some insight. "Just because my dad did some bad things, doesn't mean that my life revolves around him. I hardly remember him and my mom. Believe it or not, I'm a normal almost-teenager. I don't have suicidal thoughts and I don't have nightmares about that night. I want the attic room because it's the coolest and it can be mine because it hasn't been anyone else's before not because I feel like a burden or like my father will somehow magically attack me in the night."

He was speaking clearly and loudly, he had been planning this while staring at the rain, the rain had nearly given him the answers he needed. For a final finesse, he added, "Analyze that."

The 17 year-old Jasper Whitlock pressed his forehead against the cold glass of the window and sighed. He _did_ need something to do.

**A/M: Okay. So I know it's very boring so far but don't worry, it will get better! I'm just strategically laying out the important expositional pieces.**


	3. Up and Pacing

**A/M: Yay! Okay…I'm not gonna ramble, just gonna let you read. I have a long authors note at the end though.**

Take A Chance On Me: Chapter Three

Up and Pacing

Friday passed by uneventfully and Jasper avoided the guidance office like the black plague and concentrated on his homework dutifully.

The afternoon had been quite boring as well and suddenly, Jasper Whitlock couldn't help but be excited, anticipating the following days events. He had no idea what or who to expect other than Ms. Cullen who was very nice and would probably help him adjust quite nicely.

At 9:30 he couldn't stand it, he had finished all his homework and had jogged around the block three times and gone for a drive twice. He needed _something_ to do so he took a shower.

He turned only the hot water on and allowed it to come to temperature while he watched the mirrors fog. He had two mirrors in his bathroom; one full-length on the back of the door that could easily be blocked by towels and the other was a medicine cabinet with a mirror on the front.

He stared at himself with a mixed look of hate and dread. He knew what he had to face under his shirt but he didn't want to face it. He groaned but pulled off his shirt anyways. He usually never thought about it because he tended to take showers in the morning to ignore it. He knew the water would wake him and his fatigue would cause him to not look in the mirror.

The big scar was the initial disturbance. Running from left shoulder to right hipbone the pale crooked line mocked him begging him to remember his past his life before he could remember. The time his brain had worked hard to forget. His own body wanted to cause him misery by being a blaring memorial to his father.

The other scars were not as bad. He had the one from his more-than-normal appendix removal and one in the middle of his ribs on the right side, which was also from before he could remember, but he knew the story very well. He _could_ remember the doctor explaining what had happened.

He turned around and craned his neck to view his back. There were smaller ones all across it except for the three scratch marks across his back from Laura's evil cat that had attacked him one very random day. When Jasper had complained to the social worker he was released from her care and was then handed to Georgia.

The mirror finished fogging and he took off his jeans and boxers. Then, he got into the shower.

Jasper took his time in the shower, something he did not often do because in the morning he usually didn't have loads of extra time.

By the time he got out and was dressed in pajamas it was nearly 10:30. He sighed and chuckled to himself. _Friday night and I'm going to bed at 10:30_, he thought to himself. He shook his head but turned out the light anyways and rolled over.

Luckily, his anxiety and the hot shower had helped him to fall asleep quickly.

He was awoken the next morning by the beeping of his alarm clock at 8 AM. He groaned and was suddenly very happy he had gone to bed so early. He sat up and swung his feet out over the edge of the bed. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes then stood and walked to the closet.

Looking into the closet, the jitters really began. He had no idea what to wear. He began to freak out for a good five minutes before he settled on old paint jeans and a random grey tee shirt he could get messy and not care about.

The night before, he had detached the permission slip from the packet. He put it in his pocket as he scrambled down the stairs to eat a little breakfast before he had to drive off to school. On a Saturday. For a reason _other_ than detention.

He ate his cheerios in a mixed state of mind, he couldn't decide if he was excited or not. He was mostly anxious beyond compare and he hated feeling anxious and jittery like he did now. Melanie hummed as she prepared pancakes for the dynamic duo of Nessie and Angela. They were the best of friends and were always having sleepovers and hanging out. They were sitting at the table with him waiting for the pancakes and gossiping, never paying attention to Jasper. Surprisingly enough, Jasper got most of his inside gossip from the two girls.

"Did you see that new junior? He's _such_ a hottie!" Nessie squealed.

Angela shook her head as she sipped her orange juice, "Nuh-uh. Too buff for my liking."

Melanie rolled her eyes and looked at Jasper with a "do you hear this?" sort of look. Jasper smiled and continued munching on his cereal.

Melanie tried to engage them, "Who's this new junior you guys are talking about?" she asked. Angela looked like she wanted to kill Melanie but she obviously refrained.

Nessie however, loved Melanie and loved talking to her as well. She swooned. "Jacob Black!" She cooed. "He's a student at that Indian reserve, you know La Push? He's going here though now, I don't know why and I don't care. He's such a stud." She continued to daydream about the buff stud-like junior while Jasper laughed.

"Watch what you say around me now, Nessie," Jasper warned. "I'm starting to hang out with your brother."

Her eyes widened. "Please don't tell him," she pleaded. "He barely acknowledges the fact that I'm as old as he was when he first dated Jessica Stanley…and next year I'll be as old as he was when he dated that foreign exchange student, Tanya!"

Jasper shrugged and nodded. "Never knew your brother had so many relationships. Don't worry," he assured her. "It's between us." Nessie smiled thankfully.

"Jasper, honey," Melanie called to him. "It's getting late."

And getting late it was, according to the clock in the kitchen it was already 8:45 and that clock had a tendency to run slow. "Crap!" Jasper exclaimed as he grabbed the last few cheerios in his bowl and took off out the door.

"Jasper!" Melanie called after him. "Coat!"

He backpedaled into the house, causing Nessie and Angela to laugh. He grabbed his coat off the wall rack by the kitchen door and proceeded to exit the house again.

_It's okay. They won't bite. It's okay. They won't bite._ Jasper hummed this mantra too himself as he drove to the school. At the stoplight he pulled out the permission slip and began folding it into triangles, looking up only when the car behind him honked loudly.

Pulling into the parking lot by the gym was a new experience for Jasper. He usually parked in the back parking lot because he could get out early and avoid all of the two busses Forks High had.

He shared the parking lot with a silver Volvo and a red pick-up truck from a different decade. He brought his car to a stop and got out of it warily. He didn't like the idea of just walking into the gym because he didn't know how to act. What the others would think of him and what he should do.

He went in anyways. Hoping that he was correct in his mantra that a) it would be okay and b) they wouldn't bite.

There were a few boxes of miscellaneous building and creating tools such as paint – there were two or three boxes of paint – and a whole box of screw guns, flashlights and hammers. Not to mention the 4 full rolls of both black and white gaff tape. Jasper couldn't help but wonder if they were building more than a set, he smiled to himself at the idea of a bomb-building club being masked by stage crew.

Then, he took in the few people he was surrounded by. There was Edward Masen standing next to Ms. Cullen. A little farther away – where the bleachers were set up – the small girl with black spiky hair was laying on the bottom bleacher as the pizza shop brunette – Bella – was kneeling next to her on the floor. Jasper tried to remember what her name was from Emma's letter. Edward Masen, Ms. Cullen and… he couldn't remember.

"I can't do it!' The girl announced, her voice ringing through the gymnasium. "I can't do it. I can't do it! I just can't!" She didn't seem bothered by this; it just appeared to be a fact.

"Shh," Bella said next to her, her voice also amplified. "Yes, you can."

Jasper couldn't help but wonder what she couldn't do and why. This thought was quickly extinguished when Ms. Cullen noticed him. "Jasper!" she cried happily.

Edward turned around and waved. Jasper put up a hand in acknowledgement. Bella looked up and smiled and the other girl – damnit, he still couldn't remember her name – propped herself up on her elbows to see him. The girl looked miserable and after looking Jasper over for a moment she laid back down and continued to announce, "I can't do it!"

Ms. Cullen ran forward to Jasper. "Oh, Jasper! I'm so glad you came!" She said brightly. That was the best thing about Ms. Cullen, she was always happy and upbeat, she hardly ever had a bad day and when she did, she barely showed it. "Here, let me introduce you to people." She put an arm around his shoulders in a friendly fashion and towed him to where his fellow classmates were; Edward had now joined the two girls by the bleachers. "Jasper, I'm sure you know Edward Masen." She motioned to him. They nodded to each other. "This is Bella Swan, the police chief's daughter." She motioned to the brunette whose name Jasper already knew. "And this little drama queen over here, is Alice Brandon."

_Alice!_ Jasper concluded in his mind. _That's what it was!_

Alice propped herself up on her elbows again. "Esme, you know I'm being reasonable."

Ms. Cullen did not looked shocked to be referred to by her first name by a student, this shocked Jasper immensely. Ms. Cullen shook her head and smiled, "I know, dear," she said affectionately to Alice. "But I'm sure that when you get there, it'll be better. Don't you want to see Emmett and Laurent?" The girl frowned but sat up fully. "Fine." She muttered.

Ms. Cullen put her hands on her hips and looked around decisively. "Alright, troops," she said. "Let's move out!" she started for the door. "We're gonna put all the boxes into Bella's truck, or, as many as we can, the others will be going in the Volvo."

Edward jogged over to the carton of miscellaneous items such as the screw guns and hammers and picked it up without much issue. Bella jogged over to a box of paint, nearly tripping as she did. She observed the box from all angles trying to figure out the best way to pick it up.

Jasper knew she wouldn't be able to do it easily. Paint was heavy. He walked over and joined her, bending down to get one side of the box, "On the count of three." He warned her. She leaned down and got a good grasp. "One, two, three." They lifted the box with ease together and carried it out the doors he had just come through.

Alice disappeared from Jasper's line of vision but somehow managed to reappear by the red truck, which apparently belonged to Bella. Up her arm to just past her elbow she had different colored skinny roles of tape.

"Spike tape!" Bella groaned as they placed the paint in the bed of the truck. Jasper looked at her, confused. "It's my mortal enemy." She explained. Jasper nodded and resisted the urge to laugh.

Alice stood on tiptoes to let the tape from her arm slide into the crate Edward had put in the bed already.

"So, this is really our ride?" Jasper asked incredulously.

Bella turned on him with her hands on her hips. She apparently had an attitude. "Do you have a problem with my truck?" She demanded.

"It looks about as sea-worthy as a rubber duck." Jasper deadpanned in a British accent.

"Ah!" A shriek erupted from Alice. "Thief Lord!" She ran to him and poked him the chest and said, "You're my new favorite." And with that she went back to hauling the box of paint with Edward.

Jasper looked stricken, "You know that movie?" he asked.

"Yes!" Alice gushed as she and Edward shoved the box into the bed. "Rollo Weeks is _yummay_!" Jasper raised his eyebrows but said nothing in reply to this very girly comment.

"Alice," Edward sighed. "You think _everyone_ is yummy."

"No I don't," she argued. "I don't think _you're_ yummy!"

In the end, Ms. Cullen and Edward had dug out some 2 by 4 from the back of the school and the had had to move the paint boxes to Edward's Volvo to make room for wood in Bella's truck bed.

"Okay," Edward said mapping out the seating arrangement. "Esme is coming with me. Jasper and Alice are going in Bella's truck."

Bella frowned slightly at this idea, "It's a tight squeeze, don't you think?" she asked him.

Alice just laughed at this, and Jasper couldn't help but notice how wonderful her laugh was. "Bella, have you already forgotten? In the theater, everyone _loves_ each other!" To prove her point, she pecked Bella on the cheek causing her whole face to turn a red that could easily rival that of a ripe tomato.

"But Jasper's new to this," Bella pointed out. "He doesn't know anyone, it might be awkward."

"I could drive behind you guys." Jasper offered. Ms. Cullen frowned and Edward looked wary, Alice looked disappointed. Somehow, Alice's disappointed face was the reaction that dominated his mind. "Seriously, I'd follow you, I wouldn't run off." Ms. Cullen looked like she was trying to put her distrust into words.

"No, it's a good idea," Alice piped up suddenly, looking less disappointed now. "I'll just go with him incase he gets lost." She looked around for approval. "Is that okay, Jasper?" She asked him.

Alice Brandon was no more than 5 feet tall, if that. She looked so tiny to Jasper Whitlock that he had no idea what to do with himself. She had the personality of someone twice her size and her hair matched it perfectly. He couldn't tell if it was her size and personality or something else about her that captivated him but every movement she made spellbound him but he knew he had to keep his cool.

"Yah," He said calmly. "That sounds fine."

Edward hesitated to give his consent, and then he said, "Do you remember where it is Alice?" She rolled her eyes. "I just mean that – Ally, you haven't been there in a while, y'know?"

Alice rolled her eyes again, "Yes, _Edward_ I remember where it is."

"Okay," Edward said defensively. "You never know!"

Jasper was surprised at how much Ms. Cullen didn't contribute to this conversation, it was totally left up to them who would drive and who wouldn't and where they would be sitting. She just smiled as an agreement was reached.

"Great," Ms. Cullen said. "Now, it's getting late, let's shake, rattle and roll, kiddos!" Alice laughed lightheartedly.

Edward helped Bella close the back door to the bed of her truck and just before they parted ways, Edward opened the cab door for Bella. She climbed in and mumbled something to him. She reached for the door but Edward closed it for her anyways. She leaned her head on the horn, embarrassed. Edward then – in his gentleman-like grace – led Ms. Cullen over to the silver Volvo and mirrored the actions of putting Bella in her truck. As he walked over to the driver's seat, he looked pointedly at Jasper as if to say, _That's how you treat a lady, don't mess it up._

Jasper rolled his eyes, but did not neglect to open the door for Alice. She laughed out loud and Jasper scowled. "Sorry," She said as she sat gracefully in the car. "You just don't seem like the chivalrous type…" She blushed as if this assumption embarrassed her but Jasper closed her door and jogged around to his own, Bella was already pulling out of her spot. He turned the key in the ignition and waited for Edward to pull out.

Then, they were on the road. They would be on the road for at least 45 minutes and Jasper Whitlock had no idea what to do with little Alice Brandon for those 45 minutes.

"So…" he said breaking the silence in the car. Alice looked up from her gaze out the window and turned to smile at him.

"Are you excited?" She asked him, he raised his eyebrows suggestively. "I mean for crew, you pervert!" She squealed and Jasper smiled. He liked the idea that this little person with a huge personality had a little space to have a dirty mind.

After that, the ride was quiet and uneventful. They got lost once or twice but Alice quickly redirected them and they found the truck and Volvo once again.

Through the whole car ride, Alice stared out the window as if memories rushed past her, as if she remembered every tree and every house with every mailbox and every stop sign and every anything. Lack of dialogue caused Jasper's tensions to run high and he wished he weren't driving so that he may take out the permission slip still folded in his pocket and make triangles out of it.

Edward's Volvo's blinker turned on telling them to take a right. As Jasper turned his on, Alice visibly stiffened. They made the turn and a sign announced "PORT ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL: HOME OF THE RAGING MICE" Jasper bellowed a laugh and Alice giggled.

"Raging Mice?" Jasper choked out. "What the hell? Is that supposed to be _threatening_?" He asked still following the cars around the back of the school. On one side there was a fancy entrance. On both sides of the doors was a press in letter board that said: "Coming Soon: Little Women the Musical".

Four people stood by the doors, waiting for the parade of cars. One was a tall man in his late twenties or early thirties with black hair that was a bit overgrown and very shaggy. Another was a younger man, maybe still in college but definitely in his twenties; he had lighter hair – a moleskin brown. The other two were both obviously college students, one had skin the color of dark chocolate and short black hair, the other was a buff football player-looking guy with curly brown hair.

The truck and Volvo parked one space away from each other and Jasper continued the pattern parking one space away from Edward. The moment the car came to a stop, Alice jumped out of the car and ran to the group at the front doors.

"EMMETT!" She screamed and the boy with curly brown hair smiled and lifted her into the air as she jumped into his arms. Her legs latched onto his waist and she reached over to the dark-skinned boy. "LAURENT!" She cried and he laughed loudly.

Edward jogged over to the two men, "Seb!" He greeted the younger man happily.

Bella smiled. "Sebby!" she cried happily and carefully ran to the man as well. Esme and the other man embraced quickly and began talking business.

Jasper Whitlock stood off to the side, leaning against the trunk of his car. He didn't know these people that everyone seemed to love so much. He didn't know what to do with himself so he just stood there.

Eventually, Alice noticed his lack of presence and ran to him with the two boys in a tow. Jasper stood up straight preparing to be introduced. "Jasper," Alice said. "This is Emmett and Laurent. Em, Laurent, this is Jasper, our newest and unwilling recruit!" She sounded so excited by these words.

Jasper shook the two boys hands and exchanged pleasantries and Jasper Whitlock decided it was better to not know what to do because, if everyone knew what to do there would not be awkward silences to laugh at, no one would have room for improvement, and Jasper would never have met Melanie, Thomas, Angela, Sam, and Eric Webber not to mention he never would have met Emma Delancy. He never would have met Laura or Georgia and he'd still live in Huston with his mother, father and sister. If everyone knew what to do, they'd have no experiences and the world wouldn't need to be corrected.

Most importantly, if everyone knew what to do, the world would be pretty boring.

**A/M: Voila! Raging Mice? Haha it was going to be that or the Raging Squirrels (I saw Night At The Museum the other day)…my aunt and I have this thing about mice (or so she tells me…) and I was looking around my room for inspiration and there was a little lead mouse so…yah.**

**Okay: **

**First off, the quote Jasper deadpans is from the movie The Thief Lord based off the book by Cornelia Funke, the lead character – Scipio (The Thief Lord) – is played by Rollo Weeks – who is in fact yummy. The movie is not very well known because it never played in theaters in America and Cornelia Funke isn't the most famous writer ever. However, she did write the InkHeart series and the movie just came out on DVD and it has Rafi Gavron – also very yummy – who was the darker skinned friend in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. **

**Second, yes I know Laurent is there! The question is: Will Victoria and James be part of the story? James will but I just realized I should probably add Victoria in at some point because I literally just remembered she existed…**

**Third, Seb is a little nod to the stage crew in my school, there's an alumni who does lighting design for us named Sebastian but we call him Seb, Sebby, or in Alex's case: Seb-i-licious.**

**So. That's my story.**

**I hope you read that, it's really worth your time. =]**


	4. In The Blue Silver Chromium Diner

**A/M: Sorry this took so damn long. It was a certain length but then I added Sunday on…I also hope it's not too confusing…I know **_**I'm**_** confused by it sometimes…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I definitely don't own Port Angeles and I don't own Little Women or Tick, Tick…BOOM!**

Chapter Four

In The Blue Silver Chromium Diner

The theater at Port Angeles High School (Home of the Raging Mice) was – according to Jasper Whitlock – insane. In the raked audience there were over 300 red-velvet folding seats with two isles with a darker red carpet running over the stairs. Black handrails on either side of the isle made the stairs safer.

As the group of crew entered the auditorium through the lobby, Alice zoomed down the stairs at an alarming rate and jumped up onto the stage. The huge buff boy, Emmett, followed her taking the stairs two at a time and the other new addition, Laurent, followed laughing at both of them.

Alice stood on the very edge of the stage and began taking it all in. She hadn't seen the stage in a long time and she had missed it a lot. Jasper looked to Ms. Cullen to see her hesitantly watching Alice. The petite girl looked so much at peace. However, Emmett and Laurent attacking her on either side brought her out of her reverie. She shrieked loudly and was swooped up by Emmett once again as Laurent doubled over in laughter.

She was paraded around the stage in Emmett's arms laughing and shrieking to be put down. When they had made two full circuits of the stage, he relinquished his hold on her and let down on the stage.

Jasper looked to Ms. Cullen again to see her smiling happily. Edward and the young man with dark brown hair – Seb – were sitting in the audience pointing at lights hanging above them and Bella was taking her time walking down the stairs, stepping on each one gingerly as if she was worried she'd fall through or it'd move suddenly.

"So," Ms. Cullen said and Jasper turned around under the impression she was talking to him. However, she was talking to the other adult, the older man with black hair. "This is Jasper Whitlock, I told Alice to add him into her calculations but we'll see how she does."

The man frowned. "How _is_ she?" He asked quietly.

"She'll undoubtedly have a few bumps along the way," Ms. Cullen warned. "But she will pull through splendidly, as she always does." The man nodded. "Now," Ms. Cullen continued. "Jasper, this is Patrick, he's the technical manager for the show. I don't know if you know this, but I'm the director and Alice is the Stage Manager.

"While you're here Patrick and Alice are your bosses. Patrick will tell you how to build, but Alice will tell you when and what to build." Jasper nodded, he bit back a laugh at the idea of itty bitty Alice Brandon bossing him around. "I'll pop in every now and then on the weekends but most of my work is with the cast.

"Speaking of which," Ms. Cullen elaborated. "If you want, you are welcome to come with Alice and Edward to watch rehearsals every now and then after school. We meet in the music room after 9th period and they watch the rehearsals and take notes."

Jasper nodded. He was surprised by the amount of information he was getting. He was also surprised to be invited to the rehearsals, he had never really been into musicals other than Green Day's wannabe rock operas and even those never really captivated him. He couldn't imagine what it was like to _want_ to immerse oneself into this world. A world where you had to be perfect to even be accepted, a world where you couldn't even be yourself. Jasper Whitlock was not necessarily proud of who he was but he didn't like the idea of hiding it under masks, makeup and pretty words.

Well, actually, he was fond of masks, but he didn't approve of his use of them.

"Guys!" Ms. Cullen called as she made her way down the stairs to the stage. "Can we circle up really quick?" Everyone complied. Patrick followed her down the stairs and Edward and Seb followed suit. Jasper got one last glance at the audience before he took the stairs two at a time to catch up with the others.

From the stage, everything looked scary. Jasper found himself facing 300 plus seats and even though the minimal lights were on he still felt their burn and was horrified by the idea that people thought that standing in front of people and talking was fun or job-worthy. He simply couldn't comprehend the motive. _Jeeze_, he thought. _If you want that much attention, something's wrong with you_. Yet, somehow the boy who had so many things wrong with him pulled away from the audience and turned into the circle where everyone had their eyes on Ms. Cullen.

"First of all," She announced with a smile. "Welcome to crew!" Alice and Patrick cheered. "Second of all, I am the director of this show. I know that in school I insist on being called Ms. Cullen – Edward," She looked pointedly at him and he shrugged and threw her a flirtatious wink. "Anyways, while we are here I want you to feel free to call me Esme." Jasper frowned, he was so used to being so polite after Laura had insisted on formalities all around. No matter what. "Now, I'd like you all to go around in a circle and introduce yourselves including your title for this production – if you have one. Alice, would you start please?"

Alice exhaled seriously, looking down at the scuffed up black stage before she began to talk. When she did started her introduction she looked up with an intense look in her eyes. "My name is Mary Alice Brandon, you should all know that my name is Mary because when my family comes to see the show they will refer to me as Mary. You all, however, are obligated to call me Alice unless circumstances permit a change." She smiled at that to let everyone know she was trying to be as lighthearted as she could be. "For this production of Little Women I am the…" she swallowed and looked down at the stage again. "Stage Manager and," she looked up positively grinning. "Assistant director. Bump to Atrickpay."

Patrick laughed at this and began his introduction. "I'm Patrick, I'm the Technical Director of this 'party' and Alice and I speak fluent Pig Latin to each other." Alice stared at him expectantly. "Oh, alright," he sighed. "Bump Edward."

Edward smirked. "Edward Masen, I'm the Lightboard Op and ASM – Assistant Stage Manager – and Es knows she can't resist me." The group laughed and Jasper gave a hesitant chuckle. He couldn't help but feel like he was missing a huge part of some inside crew joke. He knew crew was supposed to be tight-knit but he felt like such an outsider at that moment. "Bump Jasper."

Jasper looked up, not realizing he had even been looking down, he looked around the circle hesitantly, Ms. Cullen – Esme smiled encouragingly at him. "Uh, hi, I'm Jasper Whitlock…I uh…I'm new to this so…sorry if I mess up or something…yah."

Nearly everyone's face fell as if they had been expecting him to spout some beautifully eloquent introduction. Everyone's face showed confusion or disappointment or something negative – all except Alice. She just stood there with a dopey grin that Jasper wanted to smack off her face. He couldn't believe how much her encouragement was actually bothering him. He wanted to jump up and down and scream in her face demanding to know what was wrong with her.

"Bump Bella." He finished.

"Oh," Bella said, had she not been expecting to be called on? "I'm Bella Swan and I'm actually giving up my insane hours of weekend time – that would earn me loads of cash at the pizzeria in Forks – to be here…even though I'll probably cause more problems than not." There you go, a completely eloquent version of Jasper's fumble. He simmered angrily but smiled nonetheless. Edward nearly beamed. "Bump to…uh…Laurent!"

"I am Laurent Dénouement," he said his voice having the smallest flourish of a French accent. "I'm working as the Soundboard op as soon as Patrick teaches me his magic tricks. I like climbing stuff so I'll probably be in the catwalks all the time." Jasper's eyes widened at the knowledge of a catwalk. _Plural catwalks_, he corrected himself. "Oh, and my stepsister's the lead in the show. Bump Em."

Emmett rubbed his hands together in an evil fashion. "Emmett McCarty!" He said happily. "Average Joe-schmoe who needed community service hours last years and fell in love with the _'scene'_. Bump Seb-i-licious."

Seb grimaced at his nickname but introduced himself well, "I'm Sebastian, I'm a graduate of Port Angeles High School and NYU so I've to the other side of the country and back again. I currently live in Seattle with a cat." Emmett laughed. "My cat's name is Emmett." Emmett frowned. "Actually, it's not."

Patrick looked around the circle to make sure everyone had been introduced. "Okay, so first off, we want to show you what the basic set will look like…we have a few drawings…"

And just like that, crew began.

At 1:00, they ordered lunch from the deli, which made Jasper glad he had brought money so he could pitch in.

At 3:00, Patrick had turned on the soundtrack to the musical.

At 3:00:05, Laurent demanded it be turned off and replaced with actual music.

At 3:00:10, Alice attempted to attack Laurent forcing him to admit that showtunes are amazing and that Stephen Sondheim is his God.

At 3:00:15, Jasper asked who Stephen Sondheim was and everyone looked at him like he was an alien.

At 3:00:20, Alice ran up to the booth and proceeded to play Sweeney Todd through the speakers. Apparently, it was part of Jasper's musical education.

"Wait, wait, wait!' Jasper insisted. "Who's Benjamin Barker?"

"Sweeney Todd!" Alice said sounding very irritated.

She was sitting in the front row of the audience sketching on a pad of paper while Jasper marked up pieces of wood to be cut. Bella was doing the same a few feet away; Edward was pacing around the stage looking up at the ceiling.

Luckily, Bella saved him with a better explanation. "Benjamin Barker's wife Lucy attracted the Judge Turpin. The Judge Turpin wants Lucy, so, the Judge Turpin arrests Benjamin Barker under false pretenses and has him shipped of to Australia. Got it so far?" She asked, Jasper nodded. "Bump Edward."

Edward stopped pacing and continued with the long-winded synopsis. "So, with Benjamin Barker out of the way, the Judge Turpin rapes the drunk Lucy who takes poison and isn't heard from again. Bump Laurent."

Laurent, who was passing by with crazy amounts of two by four with the help of Emmett, set the pile down and sat next to Bella. "Then, like, 12 or 13 years later…"

"Fifteen." Alice piped up, not moving her gaze from her sketchpad.

"Fifteen?" Laurent asked.

"Fifteen years," Alice clarified, now looking up. She wasn't hesitant about it at all; she knew this, it baffled Jasper. "It was 15 years, because Johanna's like…16 or 18 and Sweeney even says something like, '15 years I've waited hoping I might come home to a loving wife and child'."

Edward scoffed at this, "Alice, you can't remember when Columbus founded America and yet you know how long Sweeney Todd spent in jail." She blushed red, the color tinting her cheeks slightly. "Seriously, you can't remember the times tables yet you know Les Misérables backwards, forwards and in French! It's truly astonishing."

Before jasper could stop himself he blurted out a question he knew would earn him another day of listening to showtunes, "What's Les Misérables?"

Nearly everyone in the room gaped at him.

"_One day more_," Laurent began in a low voice. "_Another day another destiny, this never-ending road to calvary. These men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time. One day more._"

Edward opened his mouth next, "_I did not live until today,_" He sang as he crossed the stage fluidly to Bella. "_How can I live when we are parted?_"

"_One day more_." Laurent insisted quietly.

Bella blushed furiously but sang quietly with him, "_Tomorrow you'll be worlds away, and yet with you my life has started._"

Suddenly it got quiet; Jasper looked up and saw everyone staring expectantly at Alice. She looked up and shifted her eyes anxiously. "I'm Madame Thenardier!" She cried but Emmett shook his head. "Oh fine," she said giving in. "_One more day all on my own_."

Bella and Edward sang warily together once again, "_Will we ever meet again?_"

"_One more day with him not caring._" That was Alice, a nervous voice trilling like she was scared to be wrong or scared to be singing.

"_I was born to be with you_."

"_What a life I might have known_."

"_And I swear I will be true._"

"_But he never saw me there._"

After that, everyone was quiet again except for the occasional singing – mostly from Laurent, Edward and Alice – to many different Broadway-showtune songs that popped up on the shuffle Alice had set up.

In these three hours, Jasper heard music from shows he never knew existed and while it seemed like a bizarre genre to have on one's iPod he found he liked the pacing of most of the songs. He learned a lot about musicals from _A Chorus Line_ to _Avenue Q_ to _Beauty and the Beast_ to _Little Shop of Horrors_ to _Man of La Mancha_ to _Rent_ and many more. In the car ride home, he even found himself humming a song from _You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown_.

Bella drove Alice home so Jasper found his way out of Port Angeles messily taking too many right turns, so many that in the end he took lefts until he found his way into Forks.

It was nearly 7:30 when he pulled into the driveway and as Jasper Whitlock climbed out of his car, he realized how tired he was. He was very surprised at how the day had turned out. He ate a slice of leftover pizza and pondered how when he had gotten up 12 hours earlier he had doubted the idea of stage crew and meeting new people, but at the moment, he was rather fond of the fact he had something to do tomorrow.

*******

Alice entered the theater the next day followed by Bella who appeared to towered over her. They both carried handfuls of paint. They started down the stairs and when they reached the stage, Edward directed them where to put the paint, "Straight back and to the left!"

Jasper normally would have found this a normal instruction except for the fact that Edward was pointing in the complete opposite direction. He was currently marking up more wood to be cut for the stair railings. The design was intricate but easy to copy to the wood with the help of the tracing paper. He looked up from the design to see who had arrived and where Edward was pointing.

"Edward…that isn't a left at all that's –"

"Pick up those effing eggs!" Alice ordered in an annoyed voice then, "We're out of milk!"

Jasper looked around with a confused look that everyone seemed to mirror. The only one who didn't seem completely bamboozled by the crazy non-sequitors was Laurent. He followed along from where he was sitting in the audience on a school laptop working on coordinating props and set pieces, "Who took my rye bread?"

"Four waters to table seven!" Was Alice again.

"I'm sorry we don't deliver on Sunday; I need table three for two yesterday!" – Laurent.

"Is there a list?" – Alice sounded bored.

"Herrington, Herrington!" – Laurent called out, looking expectantly at those on the stage.

"Kaplan! K-A-P-L-A-N for _seven_." – Alice

"Order." Edward cut in simply.

There was silence for a moment before Laurent said hurriedly, "No, I'm sorry those people were here first, we don't have tables for seven."

Alice, in a smoker's voice, managed, "Are we in smoking?"

Edward's smooth voice chimed, "Tension."

Another moment until Laurent said in an accent Jasper couldn't define, "I'll have the salad necoys and some honey bread."

Still standing center stage, not moving, Edward said, "Balance."

Alice jutted out her hip and said snottily, "I said I wanted an omelet with _no yolks_! That's why you're _just_ a waiter." Jasper snorted at her theatrics.

The three turned on him, he was worried he would be reprimanded for laughing at their recitations but instead they said, quite simply, "Brunch."

Then there was nothing but work. The magic of whatever had existed for a few moments, the connection was lost and everyone set out to do their work for the day. Emmett and Edward worked on creating towers the actors could climb up to reach the hall landing they were creating above floor level. It was a confusing set and all Jasper wanted was to not mess up. He refused to get funky with any designs or help the creative process. He'd probably make everything fall apart, he knew himself at this point to know he had _no_ idea what he was doing and was just going along for the ride.

While Emmett and Edward were concentrating on teenagers in dresses climbing around backstage, Laurent tapped away on a computer and Alice and Bella primed sandwich boards for the advertisement of the show. They would be placed around Port Angeles to attract people who would otherwise not know about the show. They also had plans to place adds in the local newspapers in Forks and Port Angeles. They were more than on top of it, they had it covered.

If Jasper said he wasn't surprised, he would be lying, he hadn't expected the production to already look straight off Broadway. He hadn't seen rehearsals but from what Alice said, everything was going great. Jasper thought she would be the best candidate to know, she talked about theory and memorization and Patti LuPone and theater in general, like she knew what she was talking about.

"Guys, I have a question," the words poured out of Jasper's mouth before he even knew what he was thinking about. He didn't realize he had a question but suddenly eyes were on him and he asked the first thing that came to mind. "Is your mascot really the 'raging mice'?"

He realized he must have sounded very serious when he had begun the question because everyone stared blinkingly at him trying to figure out if he was 'for real' or something. Until, that is, Emmett burst out laughing. Jasper scowled and looked back down at his work. He hated being laughed at. It didn't happen often but Georgia had always laughed at him when he said something off-color, blaming it on 'modern education through television'.

"No, man," Emmett said through chokes of laughter. Jasper looked up again to see no one else paying attention anymore. Except for Alice, she was chuckling too. "It was…my freshman…freshman year, right Laurent?" He called and Laurent gave no sign of acknowledgement other than a thumbs up. "Right, freshman year, for the senior prank they switched the mascot costume from a raging bull to a mouse for the final basketball game. Dude, it was _hilarious_! And as a second part of the prank, closer to the end of school some kids stole the key to the case outside and redid the lettering. Then they buried the key somewhere. Don't know why though…"

Edward scoffed, "They were probably high." He pointed at little Alice, "Say no to pot!"

Alice guffawed and crossed her arms, "I'll have you know that I give speeches on the side affects of drugs to my sister, thank you very much!"

"She'd know about the side affects!" Emmett nugged her playfully.

"Fo' sho' I do, fool!" Alice exclaimed jokingly. Jasper looked away from her, ashamed.

He had no idea what brought on this wave of emotions. He had never felt bad for doing drugs whenever he pleased. He had pot and he wasn't afraid to admit it, he knew people who had booze and he wasn't afraid to admit it. So why was he suddenly afraid to admit it? Suddenly, he regretted going to crew. These were honorable people and he just didn't, couldn't, wouldn't fit in. He hated admitting this to himself but he didn't belong here. No matter how much everyone could make him feel like it by explaining the intricate plots of musicals, he just didn't fit in. He never fit in anywhere.

Needless to say, Jasper Whitlock didn't speak much for the rest of the day.


	5. I'd Want You, Beautiful and Pale

**A/M: Okay kiddiwinks, this is a T-rated story. I'm 15…I'm a teen. Teens think about what I'm mentioning here. SO DON'T BITCH FIT! Hokay, thanks very much!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Women, I don't own Sweeney Todd, and I don't own or .**

Chapter Five

I'd Want You, Beautiful and Pale

That Monday was the most boring and painful Monday Jasper Whitlock had ever experienced in his whole life. He was tired and his back ached like he couldn't believe. He was baffled at how much pain he was going through after merely sitting down for a few hours tracing patterns onto wood.

He also didn't comprehend his level of fatigue; he had gotten plenty of sleep last night. Going to bed at 11 and waking up at 6 was his normal routine and yet he could hardly keep his eyes open all morning. Even during his Advanced History class he found himself nodding off! When lunch rolled around he wanted desperately to go to the nurse to sleep for 40 minutes. His plan, however, was cut short by a voice coming from somewhere around the height of his elbow.

"You're tired, aren't you?" It wasn't really a question though, it was more a statement; Jasper looked down to see Alice flanking his right side he looked back towards his destination, but nodded. "Your back probably hurts too, huh?" She stated again and he gave her another nod. "Are you going to lunch?"

Jasper shook his head, "Nurse. I need to lie down."

"Are you alright?" Concern laced Alice's voice.

Jasper nodded swiftly again, "Yah, I'm just really tired, I dunno why but– "

"Jasper!" A quick sharp voice called out to him. He closed his eyes and frowned he knew that voice despite the lack of booze and drugs. It was Jessica Stanley.

The only question was: What was she doing?

Alice suddenly tapped his forearm and his eyes flew open and he looked down at her. "I'll see you later," she mouthed and disappeared into an empty corridor that led to the art rooms.

Quickly in her place was Jessica Stanley. She had long brown hair that was shiny and tidily pulled into a low ponytail. She wore a pair of jeans and a tube-top that almost revealed her bellybutton. She was one of the more classy sluts at Forks High, this is why Jasper constantly indulged her and every now and then they would have very philosophical conversations while high or drunk. "Hey, Jaspy!" She cooed.

"Hi, Jessica." Jasper greeted her monotonously. He was aggravated that no one seemed to grasp the idea that he just wanted to go to sleep for 40 minutes.

She clasped onto his arm. "You weren't at the party Saturday night!" She whined.

This was news to Jasper, "There was a party Saturday night?"

"Yes, and you weren't there," she reiterated.

"I'm sorry," Jasper said, not really sorry at all. "I had no idea that there was a party on Saturday and if I had known there was a party, I would have had no idea you wanted me there."

Jessica smiled, "Well, all's forgiven! What are you doing this Friday?"

"Homework," Jasper said.

"Homework?" repeated Jessica, critical. "Homework will take up your whole Friday?"

Jasper now realized how weak this excuse was, "Yah, well… I've got a paper to write for Advanced History," he lied.

"Oh," Jessica replied stupidly. "Oh, alright then. I should probably get to class then. See ya!" She skipped off down another hallway, her breasts nearly popping out of her top as she did so.

As Jasper turned up the hallway to go to the nurse, his stomach rumbled slightly. He knew he would have to do something about that or the nurse would blame his sickness on lack of food. So, instead of sleep, he went to lunch and sat alone.

During 5th period statistics, however, Jasper's teacher screamed at him for falling asleep, he was directed to go to the nurse to sleep, which he did gladly.

He pushed the door open and found a few other people in the office. There was a girl blinking profusely and looking up at the sky as if that might in someway help. There was a wheezing boy with black hair and glasses who was using an inhaler. There were two more people in the room on top of that, Edward had his arm around Bella's waist and she looked woozy.

Jasper nearly turned around and walked right back out of the office but the nurse saw him before he could leave. "One second, dearie!" she called to him. This made Bella look towards the door and give a small smile. She looked sick to her stomach.

"They do those blood tests every year, you'd think Mr. Banner would know you better by now, Isabella." The nurse babbled on to the couple. "And Edward, always such the gentleman bringing her here." He smiled and his grip on Bella tightened somewhat.

The wheezing boy had stopped his wheezing and was now handing the inhaler back to the nurse as she directed Edward and Bella into the back room for a quick lie-down.

The blinking girl smiled at the nurse and said, "Contacts." The nurse nodded and jotted it down on the sign-in sheet as the girl went to the cabinet to get lens solution.

Jasper stepped forward.

"Hello, dearie, what can I do for you?" She offered a huge smile that made Jasper want to smile; but he didn't he just gave her a bored look.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," Jasper lied. "And I fell asleep in Statistics and my teacher told me to come up here."

The nurse nodded, "Alright, dearie, the beds are back there," she pointed to the room she had just sent Edward and Bella to.

Jasper nodded his thanks and went into the back room. Bella was laying curled on one of the two beds and Edward was sitting on the end of it, they giggled about something but Bella still looked unwell. Jasper strode over to the other bed with his head down and laid down on it facing the wall.

"First weekend's always the worst," Edward said. Jasper could tell if it was meant for him or for Bella but he nodded anyways, if Edward was watching him he'd see the nod if the assurance was meant for Bella he wouldn't be looking his way to begin with.

Bella groaned and the sound of the tight bed creaking could be heard, "I can still _smell_ it, Edward! Ick! It's gross!" She sounded miserable.

Edward's manly chuckle echoed in the dark room, "I should probably get back to class, Bella," he said. "We don't want to disturb Jasper." He bid her farewell and as Bella turned over one more time, Jasper fell into desperately needed sleep.

Jasper woke to the sound of the bell chiming in the distance signaling either the start or end of class. He groaned and stood up, rubbing his head. He glanced over at the other bed and found that it was now completely empty. He stood up and nearly ran into the nurse as he began to exit the backroom; she looked shocked that he was awake and as she stared, scrutinizing him, he pulled at his wrinkled clothing.

"Well, it's good that you're up because I was about to wake you up myself." The nurse did not look pleased. "You slept like a rock through 6th period. It's only just ended." Jasper's eyes widened at this fact. "Go on to 7th!" The nurse ordered and Jasper did as he was told and ran for the music wing.

He had never been one for naptime so he truly didn't understand how on earth he could manage to sleep for nearly two periods of school. That was 80 minutes he had slept, almost an hour and a half! He was shocked. Sure he could be lazy, but he elected to be lazy. He did his homework and got good grades he just wasn't really sure what he wanted to do with his life and thus was not motivated to do anything with it. He entered the music room with a second to spare and went to his computer after throwing Mrs. Cullen a quick smile. He began to work on his composition for his 3rd quarter project. It was a composition using only the guitar to prove that acoustic and electric guitars can fit together nicely and create a moving piece of music.

As he worked at putting the two melodies together on the computer – mindless busywork in his mind – he couldn't help but realize how jealous the weekend had made him. He had been surrounded by at least three teenagers who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. He had a feeling that theater wasn't something you could half-ass.

About halfway through the class, Mrs. Cullen came to Jasper's computer and tapped him on the shoulder. Jasper jumped but then smiled at the teacher's maternal face. "May I listen?" she asked. He nodded and handed her the headphones, which were plugged into the computer. He played her what he had so far; he was already on the third verse and was constantly switching it up as the song built in intensity. He didn't know much about music, they had learned a lot in the previous years but for Jasper the senior he really only had simple, easy projects to do.

Naturally, all he had learned about measures and beats and rhythms had gone out of his head. He had always been a guitar-boy.

Mrs. Cullen smiled slightly as the music built to its crescendo and stopped anti-climactically as the verse ended and there was no more to listen to.

"It's good," said Mrs. Cullen and Jasper swelled with pride. "Have you thought about lyrics?" His face fell.

"No offense, ma'am," said Jasper. "But the whole point of my project is to prove that guitars can make their own song. So, I don't need the lyrics because that will take away from the guitars. Plus, I can't sing and we're presenting these."

Mrs. Cullen smiled, "Alright, I won't pester you. Just let me know if you have some inspiration and need help!" She patted his shoulder. "You're doing a great job!" Somehow, he knew she didn't just mean with the composition. "Are you coming to rehearsal today?" He looked up at her, startled by the idea.

"May I come to rehearsal?" Jasper asked breathlessly, still bewildered by the idea.

Mrs. Cullen laughed out loud, making the anxious foreign exchange student jump. "Of course you can!" She said boisterously. "I'm sure everyone would love to have you! Laurent will be there because he drives his sister home after the rehearsals, and Edward and Alice will – naturally – be there." Jasper looked back at his computer screen. "I'll let you think about it. 3 o'clock in here if you change your mind!" Then, she was off to the next computer.

Jasper did think about it. He couldn't get the idea out of his head. While he was supposed to compose he daydreamed about the pros and cons and as he walked to Physics he nearly trampled a girl who started yelling at him as he pondered whether he was ready to be singing showtunes while washing the dishes. All through his last class of the day he thought about it and didn't even start the worksheet he was supposed to be doing.

As everyone scrambled off to their 9th period class, Jasper tried to remember what Angela or Nessie had 8th. It was a day one so they had…

Out of the library spilled ten or so freshmen. Tutoring! Jasper recalled the class happily. Angela had tutoring on day ones. He ran to the group of freshmen who had just been released. Both Nessie and Angela were in the crowd.

"Angela, can I talk to you for a second?" He asked her. One of the girls 'oo-ed' and another one shook her head quickly thinking Jasper meant bad news. Angela excused herself and they walked out of earshot whereupon she shot him an expectant look. "Ang, I'm going to rehearsal for the play, can Nessie's mom drive you home?" Angela rolled her eyes but nodded. "Great, I'll see you later!"

Angela walked back to her group and Jasper wandered the halls as the other students slowly trickled away to their classes. He suddenly regretted the decision, what was he going to do for 40 minutes? He could, theoretically, go home for 40 minutes and come back again like he did every day but he didn't want to go home at the moment so he made his way back to the music room for the second time that day.

He entered and found, much to his surprise, there was a class going on. He glanced apologetically at Mrs. Cullen who was teaching at the board which had been discarded for Jasper's class this year. Mrs. Cullen, however, looked pleased by his appearance. "Hey, Jasper!" She greeted him. "Wanna sit in on the lesson? It's Music 3, I know you did it already but it might help with your guitar composition," Jasper stood in the threshold, unsure. "Everyone, Jasper's in Music 4 and he's doing projects he designs and works on by himself. It's like a personal study in music!" She smiled at the class, "I think everyone here will take it next year," she glanced around the room. "Oh! Except you, Edward!" Jasper inwardly groaned. Edward was in this class? "Jasper? Whad'ya say?" Mrs. Cullen looked expectantly at him. He nodded slowly and sat down in the nearest chair, Mrs. Cullen looked pleased. "Fantastic, now, this sonata is important because…"

***

Eventually, the class was put to work on some sonata packet Jasper faintly remembered it from the previous year. The class seemed competent, no one called out for help like they had the year before. Jasper dragged his chair to Mrs. Cullen's desk and watched her grade a paper.

"How are you, Jasper?" She suddenly asked him, she didn't look up from the report as she did so but the lack of eye contact wasn't unnerving.

Jasper decided to tell the truth, "Honestly? Tired as all get-out," he sighed. "I slept for two periods today!" Mrs. Cullen smiled. "I don't even know what I was doing but my back hurts _so_ bad!"

A petite body came up to the desk, "It was the way you were sitting. There's no way around sitting so your back doesn't hurt but that's _why_ your back hurts." It was Alice, she had her packet in her hands, it was open to a page filled with handwriting and scripted notes. "Is this a 7th or a 5th?" she asked Mrs. Cullen who responded correctly and Alice wrote the number above the chord. "Thanks!" she said and skipped back to her computer.

"So," Mrs. Cullen said, making Jasper tear his eyes away from the retreating Alice. "You're coming to rehearsal?" Jasper nodded. "Does Angela have a ride?" Jasper opened his mouth to ask her how she knew about Angela but decided it was silly to even ask. Mrs. Cullen knew _all_. "Yeah, her friend's mom is driving her." Mrs. Cullen nodded. "Jasper, I have an offer for you." She said, finally looking up at him from the paper she was skimming over for a third time. "Do you want to play in the pit for the musical?" He had no idea what a _pit_ was, and he was sure he didn't want to play in one. "What I mean is," she explained, sensing his confusion. "Do you want to play guitar for the show? During the performances." Jasper's eyes bugged out.

"No!" He insisted. "No! I definitely don't want to play for the show!" Mrs. Cullen looked taken aback. "Sorry, ma'am," he apologized quickly. "It's just…I barely feel comfortable presenting my third semester piece, I could _never_ play with other people in the musical!"

Mrs. Cullen rolled her eyes and went back to the paper, "Picky, picky techies…" she muttered to herself jovially. Suddenly, Jasper felt bad for turning the offer down so quickly. He though he should conquer his stage fright eventually but this was not the way he wanted to do it! She looked back up with laughter in her eyes. "I just think it's funny because Edward said the same thing when I offered him the piano."

A low, masculine chuckle came from behind Jasper making him jump slightly. "Sorry, Esme," Edward apologized. "Being bossed around by Alice is my calling!"

"Damn right!" Alice called from across the room making both Edward and Mrs. Cullen laugh out loud.

Edward passed in the sonata packet and Mrs. Cullen didn't seem surprised in the least by his quick finishing time. She offered him a seat, which he politely declined and went back to his computer to listen to music on and .

Mrs. Cullen wrote a grade on the paper finally and put it on a pile and grabbed another from the in-box. Jasper looked around at the near empty classroom.

It was a small room with desks lining the walls. There were only ten desks and each desk had a very out-of-date Mac computer on it. The class was small, only six students. In Jasper's class all the 10 computers were filled, but that was only thanks to Amin, the foreign exchange student who had an inexplicable obsession with Handel. This class was mostly juniors so Jasper didn't know them. Then again, he realized, he didn't know half the people in his 10-person class filled with seniors – and Amin.

He looked at the people in the class. He saw the girl who cursed him out earlier in the hall and the wheezing boy from the nurse's office. Then, there was Alice, she was sitting properly with a straight back and crossed ankles. It was at this moment that Jasper realized for the first time all day that Alice was wearing a skirt. He didn't know why this surprised him so much, she just didn't seem like a skirt-wearing girl to him. This epiphany brought on more that he hadn't realized about her at first and second sight that day.

Under her paint-covered jeans, she had legs. And in their crossed, bare condition they looked long despite her height. He was suddenly enraptured by the way her calve muscles flexed and released as she bounced on her toes to a non-existing beat. He was embarrassed to say that he couldn't take his eyes off the skinny white legs. Then, the legs swung around the chair and Jasper cleared his throat and looked away from the legs that were walking toward him. _Wait, no, they're walking to Mrs. Cullen_, Jasper reminded himself.

Suddenly, he got a good view of the body attached to the legs and willed himself to look away or think of something unattractive. The skirt reached the middle of her thighs and was red plaid. Jasper noticed this made her look like a schoolgirl and as quickly as the thought came to him, he willed it to go away. He refused for this to happen in front of her, Mrs. Cullen, Edward and 4 other people he didn't know. The navy blue sweater was enough for him to handle until his eyes reached the v-neck part of it. He suddenly wondered to himself how he had missed the absurd amount of cleavage he must have been staring at earlier. Had he _really_ been _that_ tired?

Then, to top it all of, she had a face. Of course, she had a face but suddenly, to Jasper, it wasn't just another face, it was a nice face. A face, he decided, he wouldn't mind seeing every day – or every weekend anyways.

Alice handed Mrs. Cullen the packet with a weak smile, "I don't want to know my grade." Then she pivoted, her skirt flying out around her, and strolled back to her computer and opened up a search engine, crossing her ankles again.

Jasper tore his eyes away from the captivating legs and continued to scrutinize the room. There was one girl tapping her pencil annoyingly and another boy was not even looking at the packet but gazing out the window in a daydream.

Suddenly, the bell was ringing and the school day was over.

The students exited the classroom slowly and Jasper was walking around, helping turn off computers. The cursing girl glared at him slightly as she kicked the door open, revealing something mysteriously resembling a combat boot. Jasper quirked an eyebrow at Mrs. Cullen who shrugged like it was a normal occurrance.

Alice, at his elbow again, whispered, "Anger management's my guess," Jasper smiled down at her and immediately regretted the decision. The cleavage he had recently discovered was staring back at him; as well as Alice's rather nice face. "Can I ride with you again? I don't wanna listen to Debussy all the way to the school." She made a face and looked up at Jasper expectantly. Then she suddenly stood back. "You're tall. I don't normally notice that kind of stuff, but you're tall."

Jasper nodded with a smile, "Yep, and you're short."

She giggled and nodded, "4 feet, 10 inches and _not_ growing," She said proudly. "Now, about that ride?"

***

During the course of the ride to Port Angeles High School, Jasper made no less than three wrong turns and nearly crashed into a tree.

He suddenly found Alice's legs _very_ distracting.

"Wrong turn." Alice informed him for the fourth time. They were inching towards being late and this did not make the Stage Manager/Student Director happy whatsoever. However, in her huff, she was only being more distracting. Her arms were crossed under her breasts and her legs were crossed causing the skirt to ride up on her thighs. Jasper clenched the wheel and ground his teeth together as he turned around for the last time.

Two blocks later they turned into the parking lot of the school and got out and quickly made their way into the theater.

In the lobby, a few people were milling about. "If you haven't checked in, go find Edward!" Alice ordered the people, they then slowly meandered to the theater.

One boy stopped next to Alice, he was tall and lanky, wearing basketball shorts and had brown hair. "Why are we here today, Alice? We're dancers! This show has no chorus!"

Alice looked like she wanted to hit him on the head with something. "We're working on Weekly Volcano Press and Operatic Tragedy today, you're in that, _aren't you_?" The boy nodded. "Good, now go into the theater and check in with Edward."

"You're better at this than James was!" The boy said. "He would just be like," He put on an airy voice. " 'Kay, guys…come check in with me…or Alice…maybe Edward…I dunno…' "Jasper chuckled at this but Alice frowned.

"Alright you, knucklehead," she said, trying to keep the situation light. "Get into the theater."

Alice didn't meet Jasper's eye when s she smiled at him and kept her head down as they walked into the theater.

They walked in to find the rehearsal nearly in full swing, Edward was on the stage and a crowd of people surrounded him with papers in their hands and dancing apparel on their bodies. Mrs. Cullen was sitting in one of the front rows of the audience talking to a girl with curly fire-born red hair. There was a woman on the stage doing very fast, complicated turns over and over again and beneath the stage another woman was setting up a piano with music.

"Come on," Alice directed, going down the stairs. "This way," and they went to join Mrs. Cullen.

***

The rehearsal, was, in Jasper's opinion, phenomenal. It turned out that the red-headed girl was Laurent's step-sister and she was _amazing_. In the two songs they practiced she had enthusiasm and passion and never said no to one of Mrs. Cullen's directions. Alice even seemed pleased and, even after a weekend, he could tell she wasn't easily pleased in theater.

The dancers were a whole other thing altogether. Up until today he had never wished himself to be a dancer but suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be a dancer. The way they moved was stunning. Even the two girls playing the Trolls were beautiful as the twirled around Jo's made up character.

During the break had to ask Alice to explain what was going on and she showed him the script that depicted that the first song was Jo reading aloud to Professor Baher in the boarding house and that the first act was basically a flashback but that in the first song in the second act she finally sold her story and she reads the more embellished version to Professor Baher.

Jasper had never read Little Women so he was still utterly confused when they came back from break and ran through it once again. It was only once they started on the other dance song – the abbreviated story – that he began to understand what was going on but it was still _way_ too confusing.

"Trust me, it makes sense when you watch it straight through," Alice whispered right in his ear. So close that he had to restrain himself from shuddering. "You won't really understand until dress rehearsal." Jasper nodded, thinking of Laura's evil cat to restrain himself from looking down at her. He felt ashamed, he didn't want to be obsessed with her sex appeal – _Sex appeal?_ – He wanted to like _her_ not her _body_, her _personality_ not her _cleavage_, he wanted to appreciate her _flaws_ not her _legs_.

During the second break, Alice got up and nearly stepped over Jasper to get to the musical director and he couldn't help but stare at the toned pale legs and he lost the raging battle with his brain and let himself enjoy them just for a moment.

The moment was too long and Jasper quickly tore off his jacket and piled it on his lap trying to look as nonchallont as possible. Edward turned around and glanced at him and he knew immediately his attempts at being blasé weren't working. He turned around further in the seat and mouthed. _Touch her legs, and I'll kill you._ Jasper closed his eyes and nodded.

That moment was worth it.


	6. Love, A Lost Illusion

**A/M: WOAH. LONG WAIT. WOAH. LONGER CHAPTER.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Little Women or Beauty and the Beast.**

Chapter Six

Love, A Lost Illusion

The following weeks passed as usual. Jasper didn't attend many rehearsals after that Monday, every two weeks or so he'd pop in and be thoroughly confused by why Amy and Laurie were obsessed with gondolas and Italy or why the four March sisters and their mother – inexplicably called Marmee – were dancing around the stage like lunatics in attempts to prepare Meg, the eldest sister, for a party.

The weekends were much like the first but now they had reached a stage where they were building so drills and table saws were running almost constantly. In the next room over though, Bella and Laurent were painting the road sign sandwich boards and having a blast. It was now the second weekend they were working on it.

Saturday had been pretty good so far, but Jasper sensed an ominous air and he didn't like it. What really set him off, was Alice.

Every other weekend, Alice had been quick witted and always joking around with Patrick and Seb up in the booth, administering orders from random seats in the audience. But today she had simply sat herself in a seat and watched the progress. She offered to help every now and then but no one would let her.

She offered bits of advice here and there and made regular progress checks on Bella and Laurent.

Jasper found himself in a compromising position, he had asked both Seb and Patrick for a project but they had both directed him to Edward and Emmett who said they didn't need help but they'd call him if something came up.

So far, he hadn't really done anything spectacular. He had finally finished tracing the shapes but had then been told he wouldn't be cutting them and was then told to grab wood from the shed outside.

It had become winter – real winter – and the first time he had gone in to get wood he had nearly broken his fingers of prying the frozen shut door open. Today, there were remnants of snow on the ground but it was nothing special in his opinion, it was just cold to his poorly dressed feet. There was a giggle from behind him as he lifted the latch to the shed and kicked the snow out of the way. He spun around quickly to see who it was.

Of course, it was Alice.

"What are you laughing at?" Jasper said calmly, he didn't want Alice to think he was mad at her.

"You look…rugged?" She tried to find the words. "I dunno." She shrugged and Jasper went back to pulling the doors open. They swung open creating a clean line on the snow. "How are your college applications coming along?"

"I don't know about you, Alice," said Jasper. "But I don't find talking about my future to be pleasant small talk."

"Okay then, the past?" She offered.

"Worse."

"Oh."

"Yeah." He said. He didn't care how rude it sounded though because it was the truth. He hated to talk about his past for reasons obvious to him. "How about you? Where do you want to go to college?" He glanced at her pulling away from his search for 2x4.

"Actually," she said. "I do know. I want to go to Sarah Lawrence, Carnegie Mellon or maybe even Royal Holloway, if I can get in."

"Ah, East Coast schools?" He smiled at this; she _would_ be the type of person to go to an East Coast school. "I'm honestly thinking University of Washington – if I can get in."

Alice sighed and shook her head, "Jasper, you're silly, you should never settle, you should always reach for what you want. I'm actually going to apply for Yale but not go even if I'm accepted. It's too big a school, the entire campus at Royal Holloway is about the same size as the freshman campus at Yale."

"Big dreams for a small fish."

"I've always been like that." Alice smiled. "My mom doesn't really approve but as long as I'm attempting to achieve something she's okay with my extracurricular activities and what I do with my life."

"Sound's like you've got a _great_ support system," Jasper drawled sarcastically.

"I do," Alice said. "Just not at home." She watched Jasper pick up the 2x4 he had dug out. "Once you give that to Em and Edward could you go into the hallway and take Laurent's place? Tell him I want to talk to him." Jasper nodded but before he could say anything Alice had thanked him and was off into the warm theater.

Jasper did as he was told and after dropping the wood at Edward's feet, he took Laurent's place in painting with Bella.

Laurent and Bella had exchanged looks when Jasper had delivered Alice's message and Laurent had dropped everything without even thinking about it to go to her.

Bella still looked anxious as Jasper began gentle brushstrokes over the second T, she stared at the board as if she was trying to assess everything. Then, without thinking, she brought her hand to her heart thus dabbing her yellow shirt blue paint. She looked down and flipped out. She jumped up and fell back down again knocking the small paint can onto her shirt as she did so. Jasper jumped up.

"Oh my God!" Bella cried looking at the shirt. "I can't catch a break!" she moaned to herself. "Ugh, and it's seeping through, crap!" She took Jasper's out stretched hand and allowed him to pull her up.

"Here," Jasper said and he began to pull of his shirt.

"Wait! What are you doing?" cried Bella.

"If I give you my shirt, the paint won't seep into your skin and kill you and then you can run and get a shirt from that show-shirt box," Jasper explained and continued to pull off his shirt.

"Right, that's smart!" Bella said appreciatively. Jasper handed her his shirt and turned around chivalrously. She quickly stripped herself of the paint-stained shirt and pulled Jasper's large one over her head. "I never realized how much bigger you are than me," she stated. "You can turn now." He did. "Okay, well, I'm going to get a show-shirt and I'll be right back…I hope the Home Ec room is open, this has to go in the wash." She left through the stage door.

When she returned, Jasper hadn't moved from his spot and was crossing his arms hoping Bella wouldn't notice his marred body. His prayers were not answered as she returned wearing a grey shirt with "The Miracle Worker" on it. As she tossed his shirt in Jasper's general direction her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Jasper!" She exclaimed and took a step forward, which Jasper complemented with a step backwards. "Oh my God!" She put a hand out and retracted it almost automatically. "What – Are you okay?" The first part had her sounding baffled, the second part made Jasper's heart soar. Sure, he didn't like Bella in that way but he couldn't help the sensation he got when she sounded genuinely concerned. "My dad is the police chief, he could totally– "

He had to stop her there, "Woah there, Bella!" she shut up immediately. "Thank you for being concerned, it means a lot to me," she looked skeptical. "I'm serious – it does! But, everything's better now. I'm safe now. This," He pointed to the diagonal scar across his chest. "Happened a _long_ time ago." Though she nodded understandingly, Bella still continued to stare until Jasper pulled his tee shirt back over his chest. At which point, she turned away and blushed a profound shade of red.

***

During lunch, Alice posed a surprising question.

They had gotten lunch from the local deli as always however, lunch was quiet today. Everyone still kept their distance from the normally extroverted Alice but it was not as uncomfortable as the near-silent theater. Perhaps, Jasper reckoned, it was because they were eating.

Suddenly, Alice looked up from her vegetarian sandwich and asked, "Should I come tomorrow?" Everyone suddenly froze and stopped chewing. Even Emmett who had been ravenously chowing down on a ham and cheese sandwich had stopped.

Patrick, normally the more light-hearted of the group, said somberly, "Alice, _I_ think you should come because otherwise, you're not helping anything, especially not yourself." Bella nodded in agreement.

Alice sighed, "But I probably won't _do_ anything! I'll probably end up begging Bella to take me home early or something."

"I won't!" She insisted sternly and Alice rolled her eyes and Bella huffed, "Alice, you won't be able to ignore it if you put it on a pedestal and go out of your way to get around it."

"She's right," agreed Patrick.

Alice looked desperately to Laurent for some assistance but the dark-skinned boy shook his head, clearly his loyalties were with Patrick and Bella and he sent her a look that said, "You know they're right, Alice."

In defeat, Alice sighed. "It was kind of a pointless question anyways," She added, as she got up to throw away her sandwich. "My mom probably wouldn't let me stay home, anyways. She hated it when I moped around all spring." Then, she was off, back into the theater once again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jasper noticed Emmett reach over and pat Laurent's shoulder in a manly form of compassion and he couldn't help himself but ask the question that would remind him that he was, in fact, an outsider to the group.

"What was that about?"

Laurent stood quickly almost knocking his chair over. Patrick looked up again and watched him hesitantly. The dark boy crumpled up what was left of his sandwich and he too left the room.

In the past two months, Jasper hadn't really entered the inner-circle at all. He had remained an observer with a clouded mind. He hardly knew Laurent or Emmett and the longest conversation he had had with Bella to date was about paint stains earlier that day. He and Edward had their moments and Alice was still a bubbly enigma. This frustrated him and motivated him all at once. He _couldn't_ give up crew because he simply needed to understand the people involved.

These thoughts carried him silently through the rest of crew – he and Bella continued to paint the road signs. He thought about how little he knew of the people he was working with and how Emma had been hoping he would make friends and how he had somehow managed not to.

In the car he wondered what about him made him unfit to join the tight-knit inner-circle of stage crew. Was it that he was simply an alien to them or was he doing something entirely wrong?

As he pulled into the driveway, he shook his head to clear it and made his way into the picturesque house.

Melanie was on the phone hovering over something that smelled delicious. She waved to Jasper as he stepped through the door and took off his coat. Angela was at the table focusing on a piece of paper in front of her, Jasper doubted it was homework because her homework was required to be finished by Friday night so he doubted she'd be practically waving it in her mom's face. The faint sounds of Sam, Eric and Thomas laughing came from the living room.

"Uh-huh," Melanie agreed on the phone. "Well, I gotta go, Jasper just walked through the door and I need to get this food on the table." The person on the other phone agreed. "Okay, bye!" Melanie removed the phone from her shoulder and handed it to Jasper who immediately hung it up on the wall charger. "How was crew?" she asked him as he sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed an apple from the bowl in the center.

Jasper groaned. "I don't even _know_! I can't tell if it's me or if everyone else is just _crazy_!"

Angela looked up, "It could be both," she said and then returned to scrutinizing the paper in front of her. He glared daggers at her and lifted himself out of the chair and returned the unbitten apple to the bowl and started to go upstairs.

"Jasper," Melanie called. "Beef stew for dinner in 10 minutes, okay?"

"Yah, Mel, thanks!"

***

Later that night, Angela surrendered the family computer to Jasper to take a call from some boy named Ben. Jasper made a mental note to ask her who this "Ben-guy" was. He logged on to his seldom used IM account and Facebook.

He didn't have a lot of friends on Facebook or a lot of buddies on IM, just a few kids in his grade – Jessica, Lauren and a few others; he was also friends with Melanie, Thomas, Angela and Nessie Masen. However, when he logged on he found he had 8 friend requests. He clicked on it and read.

Mary Alice Brandon (Forks High School Class of '11) wants to be your friend on Facebook.

Bella Swan (Forks High School Class of '10) wants to be your friend on Facebook.

Edward Masen (Forks High School Class of '10) wants to be your friend on Facebook.

**Message: Why are you friends with my sister? I'm not even friends with my sister. **

In addition to these friend requests he also had one from Laurent, Emmett, Patrick, Seb and even one from the lead of the show, Victoria Dénouement. He accepted them all with a smile on his face then he went to check out their profiles.

Jasper didn't _really_ know his way around Facebook but he enjoyed looking at everyone else's. Edward's status was in a foreign language Jasper didn't realize, but Alice had liked it and had responded in the same language. Bella didn't have a status and Alice's didn't make sense, "Mary Alice Brandon wishes it were next year already. It would be less difficult if she could move on without dealing with it." Laurent had demanded she text him in the comment box.

Suddenly, Jasper felt really bad looking at this, like he was entering her life and her secrets, uninvited so he quickly moved onto Emmett's status, which involved a joke about a banana.

Then, he went to his own profile and found that Charlotte and Peter had spammed his 'Wall' since the last time he had checked his profile a few months ago.

There were things like, 'Dude, are you still alive?' and 'Hey, I get WiFi in rehab!' random things only the three of them would understand. He clicked on Charlotte's name and was redirected to her profile.

**Charlotte Todd **_is drooling over the very feminine-looking Jamie Campbell Bower and will in fact hit Peter if he insinuates that I'm a lesbian one more time._

Peter had liked the status so he was obviously not afraid of her. Jasper clicked on the box to write her a message.

_You mean you're NOT a lesbian for looking at girly-men? Kidding. Don't hit me! I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you in months and months and months. Ang spends a lot of time on the computer and I don't really have much motivation to go on when she's not home. Not to mention Senior year's a kick in the butt for me because I didn't do no work last year. =P _

_Anyways, sorry to hear about rehab – again, but I'm glad that you at least had WiFi this time! That's always important. How's your mom? She sent you an iTouch for Christmas, wow. For a woman who claimed she couldn't take care of you she sure sends you lots of swanky gifts. I'm jealous. But, I still have the cool attic room and you don't…so HA. _

_So guess what? I have friends. 7 of them! Well, two of them are adults – one of whom speaks Pig Latin and wears cowboy hats but that's irrelevant. I've got 5 friends and I can remember their names!_

_I miss you. Get on a plane and visit me in Forks. Like, tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow wait until March and you can see my epic project that I've been working on for 2 months with my 5 friends. Seriously, you and Peter HAVE TO come see it. I'll call the house myself!_

_Okay, I should probably do something other than write to you – like stalk this guy my sister's talking to on the phone. Good ol' Facebook._

He ended it there and smiled. He liked himself a lot better when he was around Charlotte and Peter but he also knew it was damaging to his progress thus far seeing as Charlotte was constantly in and out of rehab for depression and Peter was suffered tremendously from being manic bi-polar. They helped each other through a lot but Jasper found himself feeling like the third wheel on the depression bicycle. So when Melanie and Thomas had found him he hadn't argued about going because even back then Jasper could tell Peter and Charlotte were going to be together for the long haul and forever.

"Jasper!" Melanie called from the kitchen. "Do you want to be part of the interrogational teasing about Ben?"

"Psh, yes!" he called in response and he quickly made up a random status: **Jasper Whitlock **_signed on to 8 friend requests! Oh happy day! Now, he's off to interrogate his sister about a boy named Ben._ He set it and logged off both his IM and his Facebook and made his way into the kitchen to wait with Melanie.

***

Ben, as it turned out, was a topic that made Angela blush red as she admitted that he was a boy in her English class who had originally called for an assignment but had plucked up the courage to ask her on a date. Melanie smiled happily and they discussed what day would be best for them to go out.

Jasper had snuck out after Angela had assured him that Ben was a good, shy kid; then, he retreated up to his room for a good night's sleep.

In the shower the next morning, he couldn't stop thinking about his promise and request to Charlotte, would he really call the house to negotiate them visiting? How much would plane tickets cost, would it be too much for one weekend. Would Melanie even agree to them visiting? Did they have room for guests? How would the issue of medication for Peter be resolved, did they let you travel with prescription medication if you were going away for a weekend?

At breakfast, he broached the subject, "Melanie, Thomas?" They made sounds of acknowledgement. "Could my friends from the foster house place come and visit to see the show?" Angela dropped the piece of toast she had in her hands and Thomas looked at him over his paper. Melanie stopped attacking the pancake batter and Sam and Eric made airplane noises in the silence.

Melanie was the first to speak, "I'd have to talk to Meghan," Jasper knew this probably meant no, he looked down at his eggs. "But I doubt there'd be a problem." He looked back up and their eyes met. He smiled appreciatively.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe they'd come in on Saturday morning and they could hang out here and the go see the show or they could see the matinee and then hang out here or they could come see both shows and I could take them to the cast party!" Suddenly, Jasper was very excited about something that didn't even have a set in stone answer.

Melanie laughed, "That sounds _wonderful_, Jasper!" She sounded genuinely happy for him. "I'll call later this afternoon, the show's in three weeks, right?" Jasper nodded, surprised by how soon it was. They had the landing built, they just needed a way to make it stable enough for people to dance and run across it safely. Everything was for the most part painted – they just needed to roll the stage and the floor – and the crew's job was mostly over. The minimal set was nice but as he cleared his plate, Jasper realized he had no idea what he was going to do after the show was over. All of them, except for Alice, were seniors so there was no next year to look forward to.

Would he ever hang out with them at school? Over the summer? How far would Facebook carry them into the future? Speaking of the future, Jasper still needed to finish applications to the schools with the least expectations. Mrs. Delancy hadn't been happy when he requested information on schools using that exact phrase but she had given him the information because at least now he was _interested_ in colleges.

These thoughts carried him to Port Angeles. He remembered what Alice had said yesterday, she had sounded so ambitious already knowing exactly where she wanted to go and why. She had given him wisdom no one else had quite yet: _Don't settle_. He wondered briefly what colleges everyone else in crew was going to. He recalled that Seb had gone to NYU but no one else had made any announcements about going to school and getting into college.

He pulled up into the parking lot and parked in the spot that had become _normal_ to him. So much about the building was now familiar to him but no matter how much the asthetics came to be part of his daily life, he still found himself looking from the outside when referring to the people.

He entered the theater and everyone was silently at work. Patrick was standing on the stage looking up and writing things down on paper as he did so. Emmett and Laurent were finishing up painting the underside of the second story – something Alice had insisted on. Seb was plotting ways to make the landing stable. He was thinking of somehow attatching it to the wall without drilling holes. He called out something about drilling the stairs to the walls in the wings and connecting it with those and putting something behind the stairs.

Jasper made another sweep of the stage and found that the door to the hallway was open so Bella was probably already here and finishing up the road signs.

If Bella was here, that meant that Alice was too but as Jasper looked around for a third time he still couldn't locate the short girl. He was too anxious to ask where she was so instead he went to Patrick and asked for a job.

Jasper's job for the day was learning to work a spotlight. He climbed up the precariously placed ladders on either side of the stage to a wooden platform where a spotlight was placed. The tutorial took a while because Jasper's mind was on Alice and the possibility of Charlotte and Peter coming to visit him.

When he was finally able to pick Patrick up from anywhere on the stage, he was told to come down.

The moment his feet touched the floor Seb was talking at him bouncing ideas off him and Jasper was totally lost.

"I think if we connect them there it'll work, but I think we need to also keep in mind that the audience is big so we cant have them see it. I guess we'll need an absurd amount of duve…yes, duve will be our friend," Jasper raised his eyebrows at the bizarre statement. "Jasper!" Seb exclaimed as if just noticing he was there. "Can you go to the booth and get the huge thing of duve?"

Jasper was perplexed, "Duve? What's– "

"You'll see." Seb assured him and pushed him towards the booth.

Jasper had never been in the booth before, he felt like it was the supierior place in the theater and it was a priviliage to go there – a privilage Jasper didn't feel he had obtained in the two months of crew. He jogged up the stairs the thought of the missing Alice coming back to him. As he reached for the door handle he almost expected it to be locked but it wasn't, it turned lightly in his hands and he pulled the door open. There were a few steps inside and at the top of them sat Alice, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on her knees.

He cleared his throat to let her know he was there, she gasped and looked up and he nearly ran out of the booth. Her normally composed face had fallen, the little make up she had worn was smuged under her eyes. She looked away quickly, ashamed of her state.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him in a choked voice.

"Seb told me to get duve," he said hurriedly, knowing it was no longer important. "Alice, are you okay?" Jasper thought about the question a second time and shook his head. "Well, obviously you're not," he kneeled down in front of her. "What's wrong?"

She looked up at him through glassy eyes and said softly, "No one told you about James…" Jasper shook his head. "It's a sad story." Jasper nodded, accepting the fact that Alice wasn't going to present her life to him. He stood up sadly. "Well, if standing suits you," Alice said in an unsure voice.

"What?"

"Make yourself comfortable. It's a sad story." Suddenly, Jasper understood. She _was_ going to tell him, she was going to let him in, she was going to be the first to bring him inside the inner-circle.

Jasper immediately fell back to the floor and scooted himself so he was against the wall next to Alice. She stared forward under a plastic table holding the lighting board and soundboard. Underneath it was a mess of cables and wires.

"I've been doing theater since I was eight," she announced firmly. "My family used to live in Port Angeles because my dad's job was in Seattle, I would have gone to this High School if dad hadn't been transferred to La Push. He does something with math I_ think_; maybe it's public relations? I don't know. We live in that fancy mansion development off Oak.

"Anyways, my mom started doing theater with me because she thought it would bring us closer together, which it did until I was nine and Cynthia was born and the world became about her; but _I_ was hooked, _I_ wanted to be a _star_," She chuckled as though this was hilarious to her. "Well, we moved and my mother had this complete adoration for my infant sister but she kept taking me to rehearsals like I begged her to but they started becoming a schlep and eventually she stopped bringing me to auditions so I stopped getting into shows and I didn't have to go to rehearsals anymore.

"Then, middle school came and went and it was nothing special, it wasn't good but it wasn't bad. Somewhere in the middle of it all, my mom met new people who had kids in the high schools in Forks and Port Angeles and they would come over and bring their kids. That's how I met everyone. I told them I was disappointed that Forks didn't have a theater to talk about and they told me that there was a theater here and, if I so wished, I could come and be on the crew there.

"Well, I don't need to tell you how beautiful this theater is – for a high school theater anyways. I wasn't thrilled about being on crew because I still had stars in my eyes but as time went on I realized that I was meant to be behind the scenes.

"Among my mom's new friends was a wonderful woman who had a son, James, he was two years older than me and James was the Stage Manager here." She began to look wistful as her story took a sweet turn but she suddenly turned her tear-streaked face to Jasper, "Laurent is gay," she informed him. "He dated James for two years but last fall fall, after I kinda…" she made a face, "…grew up… he stopped treating me like the little sister and started pushing me around a little bit, y'know? Always giving me a hard time for no reason other than the fact that he wanted attention? We played and flirted through the whole Fall Drama and he and Laurent just sorta fell apart.

"Eventually, James did the right thing and told Laurent that he liked me because, even if it was platonic, he still did love Laurent and he didn't want to hurt him too badly.

"Laurent took it well and gave James his blessing to go after me. So he did. He pursued me for the first half of the musical last year, which was especially easy when I was his Assistant Stage Manager that year. It was this day last year that we finally got together."

Alice looked like she was nearly ready to start to cry again. Jasper didn't understand what could make this so sad. The worse he could think was that they had had a difficult break up when James went away to college. He was about to ask when Alice's gentle voice began once more, her voice more somber now.

"Things were great, really, they were fantastic! The show was great and James was great, I was great and my family was great – nothing was wrong. The only bad thing was the looming knowledge that James was a senior and would be away at college the next year. We tried to ignore it but as he sent out more college applications we became sadder though we were always working to keep our heads up.

"James had high hopes and with his high hopes came prestigious, big schools – Yale, NYU's Tisch, UCLA – he really wanted it all, to be a famous stage manager but he didn't meet a lot of academic requirements. Us artsy folk aren't always the best at school, y'see.

"He had really been praying for NYU's Tisch because he knew he didn't really stand a chance with Yale but he would have also gone to UCLA – which is where his mom wanted him to go because it was reasonably closer," she sniffed but continued.

"It was opening night and he was supposed to pick me up to take me to the theater, but he was running late and eventually he just didn't show up. Finally, Edward came to get me. He told me that no one had seen James since school ended earlier that day and that together we would run the show.

"We did, and we were fabulous but as you can imagine I was still really worried about James. The next day was Friday and I went to school like any other day but when I got into Music, Esme told me to use her phone to call James' mom. I did and she told me that he…had gotten an e-mail last week from UCLA telling him he had been rejected and that the day before he had gotten a letter from NYU…rejected."

Somehow, Alice's tears were gone now; she just spoke darkly as she stared at the mess of cords and wires. Then, she concluded her story, and as she said the last few words, she sounded awkward, like she was ashamed of it.

"He uhm, had decided that he couldn't possibly settle for anything less than his dream schools and…he had…hanged himself from his ceiling fan."

All Jasper could do was put his arms around Alice as she leaned her head against the back wall, her eyes shut tight as she attempted to control her breathing.

**A/M: Well, I hope that makes up for the fact that I haven't updated in a while. I also hope it makes up for the fact that I won't BE updating for a while. I am taking up the NaNoWriMo Challenege and well be focusing on a different story for the month of November.**


	7. I Found My Song

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I don't own any of this music etc.**

**Author's Note: I know this chapter gets convoluted and such but I tried to smooth it out a little. It goes on forEVER and I'm sorry about that…but please bare with it. Next few chapters will be shorter. This chapter's song is from the Finale from RENT. Enjoy.**

Chapter Seven

I Found My Song

"Last day with no rehearsals for three weeks!" Alice declared excitedly to Jasper. She had sprinted up to him in the hallway just to tell him this, "Are you excited?"

Jasper rolled his eyes and looked down at her, "Oh yes, it's always been my dream to be a theater bitch for three weeks straight."

Alice beamed, "I _knew_ you were one of us!"

"One of _us_;" it made Jasper glad to know that _someone_ thought he could be on the inside loop of crew. Lately, he _had_ actually felt like one of them – ever since Alice had told him her James story she had been finding new ways to incorporate him during rehearsals and other such affairs. Jasper was officially co-prop master working alongside Bella.

Ever since that fated day, Alice had also not said a word about it. She had been chipper and bubbly ever since and had shown no signs of regretting either telling Jasper or going to crew that day. Nobody else talked about it either. He couldn't help but wonder if this was a request from Alice or just an agreed upon silence of the group.

"When do you have a free?" Alice asked suddenly, as she noticed that they were going into the English and History hallway.

Jasper groaned, "Fourth." He hated is free period. It had all the bombshells from his grade and a few juniors. They were always all over him – asking him for drugs, cigarettes or to hook up at an upcoming party. Lately though, he hadn't gone to the cafeteria during his frees and thus hadn't been ambushed. In honesty, he had begun to sit outside the art room where Alice, Bella and Edward spent their fourth period free.

"_Really_?" Alice gaped, shocked, "I have _never_ seen you that period!"

Jasper shrugged. "I'm usually in the cafeteria," he told her. "Half my grade's in that lunch…"

"Oh, well, then you'll probably want to hang out with them, right?" She honestly looked a bit disappointed.

"It depends on the alternative." He shrugged, trying to play his nonchalant mask over his honest interest in being able to express his opinions in the art room.

Alice frowned. "No," she said as she changed her mind. "Really, it's okay," She looked away. "I have to go to French." And she was gone, tearing down the hallway.

And Jasper couldn't concentrate. History, learning about Imperialism and the over taking of China was just not captivating at the moment; he wished Alice hadn't assumed he didn't want to hang out with them.

When the bell rang, Jasper was out of his seat like a bullet. He hadn't even pulled out a pen or notebook. He would get the notes later but first period History was always excruciating. He knew where she was and he had to be there too. He sprinted up the stairs, almost knocking over a short and chubby freshman boy.

He ran to the end of the language hallway where the one and only French classroom was located. People were walking out lazily, humming a rap about firefighters. "No, no! It's '_Un-un-huit!_ Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. _Un-dix-huit!_ Do-do-dodo-do-do-do." It was Alice as she badly rapped the theme for the phone number to call incase of a fire in an obscure French-speaking country. She was laughing with a girl Jasper had never seen before in his life.

He was afraid she would see him standing there looking helpless, but she did. Her all-knowing eyes wandered around the hallway right outside the door as she took in her surroundings. When she eyed Jasper she eyed him with contempt and kept walking with her friend. Was he really going to have to call for her?

"Alice!" He called. She whipped her head around for the source of her name and frowned.

"I'll see you seventh!" she called to her friend and walked over to Jasper. "Hi." She said trying to keep the venom out of her voice. She really didn't want to disrupt her bubbly persona.

"You didn't let me finish earlier." Jasper stated plainly, he was going to blame this on her and he didn't care how it was going to make her feel. "You jumped to a conclusion that I didn't want to hang out with you." Alice rolled her eyes. "What was _that_ for? I _know_ I didn't deserve that. Y'know, I was actually going to say I'd love to hang out with you fourth period but you didn't let me _finish_."

When Alice replied, her tone was sharp and agitated. "Well then, you're welcome to join us. We eat in one of the art rooms. You'll be able to find us." Then, she turned once again and made her way down the hall. Jasper blinked slowly as he tried to decipher Alice-speak. _Why_ was _she_ mad at _him_? _He_ hadn't made any assumptions, had he, now?

French was hopeless; he could _not_ understand why _s'asseoir_ had a 'y' in the _vous_ and _nous_ form. Verbs made him mad.

"_Rappelez-vous les devoirs_!" The teacher called as they left the room. Now, it was back to the English and History hallway for Advanced History.

History; it was the only thing Jasper liked academically. He liked making connections from the past to the modern day, he liked reading literature about history and he liked to read about wars – people killing each other for no reason. It got his blood pumping and 42 minutes a day, five out of seven days he felt passionate about something.

He paid attention during history.

Then, it was fourth period – Jasper's free. He went straight to the art rooms, he did not pass the cafeteria and he did not collect $200.

"God," Alice's soprano voice chimed miserably. "I'm such a hardcore brat! I totally cut him off and got myself worked up about and then he completely gives me what-for and I'm like 'yah, well, you can join us, we eat in the art rooms, bleh!' Ick! Edward, why am I so icky?" Jasper smiled to himself and entered the art room.

"You're not icky," he promised her as he walked in. "You just ticked me off and I couldn't sit through History."

"Wow, Jasper, what a _wonderful_ apology." She bit sarcastically in reply. She was sitting on the table, hunching slightly as if she was just _relaxed_. Whenever Jasper was around her she had perfect posture – like she was always performing.

"Alice, stop whining!" Bella insisted – Jasper hadn't noticed her at first. "I need to see your face. Your eyes are brilliantly connected with your emotions, did you know that?"

"You tell me that _every_ time you draw me, Bells!" Alice giggled but did as Bella requested and stared down at her while Bella drew from the lower angle.

Edward sat down next to Bella after giving Jasper a look that told him he was on probation in Edward's mind. No one asked him to sit down.

"Ooh!" Bella exclaimed suddenly. "Edward, ask Jasper about today!" Edward looked like he was about to protest but Bella stopped him. "You know you still want to."

Alice looked up from Bella's portrait. "Why are you standing there, fool?" Jasper shrugged. "Well sit down."

"Harry Potter!" Bella cried looking up from her drawing as well.

"_Which one_?" Alice challenged.

"Uhm. Er… the one…with the potion…and oh…Dr. Frankenstein-guy!" Bella struggled for the name. "And then there's the bird and the young, hott Voldemort-guy and oh! There's that big scary CGI snake and…it's the…Chamber of…Secrets! Ah! The Chamber of Secrets!"

"_Bonne!_" Alice exclaimed then she turned back to the door where Jasper still stood. "Well?" She asked expectantly. Jasper hastily crossed the room and sat down on the stool next to where Alice was perched on the table. He immediately regretted this decision as he was now face to face with Alice's very nicely sculpted butt. He swallowed and looked at Edward who was still glaring but he did finally speak.

"Do you want to come over after school?" He asked carefully, measuring each of his words. "Alice, Bella, and Emmett are all coming over after school. If you'd like to join us, you are welcome to do so."

Jasper? Go to Edward's house? As friends? With Bella and Emmett? With…Alice?

"Uh, sure. I can go." Jasper shrugged awkwardly.

"Excellent," Alice cheered. "We have to find you a song."

Jasper felt his eyes shift. "A-a song?"

Bella looked up, sharing a warm smile with him, and said, "You'll understand later."

There were a few silent moments of foreboding before Alice cried, "Let's play Truth or Dare!"

Bella groaned, "No! I am not watching you guys dare each other to do crazy stuff and force me to tell my deep dark secrets. Not happening. Alice, look at me, would you?" Alice focused on Bella but continued to insist on her game.

"I'll play." Jasper finally volunteered.

"No, Jasper, don't!" Bella joked. "You have _no_ idea what you just got yourself into!" Alice cackled evilly at this before she offered him the basic question.

"Truth." Jasper said plainly.

But before Alice or Bella could ask a question, Edward asked quickly, "Do you really do pot?"

Alice's head spun like an owl's and inquisitive bug-eyes stared into his soul, Bella just glanced upwards but returned back to her drawing – unsettled.

Jasper inhaled then, exhaled loudly; he looked at Alice's face and Edward's judging smirk and said, "Yes." Alice gasped and looked down at Bella who glanced at him through her lashes. "Not something I'm really proud of and I don't do it a lot - cigarettes are nice though. My mom doesn't like it though. She can tell when I'm doing it because I move stuff around upstairs. The scraping furniture makes her sad," Jasper stared at the table as if it were the most intriguing thing atoms had ever compiled. "But, I – eh – I haven't done it a lot lately. I have some in my desk at home but…haven't used it in a few months, really." Now that Jasper thought about it, he hadn't done pot since he had been commissioned to do stage crew. The thought warmed him slightly, but he wouldn't ever admit that to them. "Bella, truth or dare?"

"Truth," was her automatic response.

Alice jumped in, "Who do you like?"

Bella sighed and Alice appeared to think she would finally hear the answer. However, "I like you all," was Bella's diplomatic response. "You're all my very good friends."

Edward laughed out loud, "Ah, Bella the evasive one." Jasper had a feeling he liked her.

Jasper had only one word from his very extensive vocabulary to describe Edward Masen's house.

_Damn_.

The house was huge, old and gorgeous. It was painted an off-white that stood out from the dreary-drab of Forks. There was a front porch with a staircase leading up to a decorative door. Which Edward pushed open with ease. He informed Jasper, Bella and Alice that no one was home and that Emmett would be joining them soon.

He offered a small tour of the first floor of the house – a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Just as he was about to show the trio the basement, Emmett's jeep pulled up to the house.

Edward brought him inside graciously. He seemed rather surprised to see Jasper standing there amongst the group but he accepted it and headed down the stairs into the basement, he was quickly followed by Alice and Bella.

"This," Edward said as he led a hesitant Jasper down the stairs, "Is where we have fun."

_Damn._

The room was massive. It had a huge – undoubtedly high-definition – TV with what appeared to be a Wii sitting next to it. There was an air-hockey table and in the corner there was a box labeled "Nessie's Stuff." Jasper frowned. He had forgotten that Nessie was Edward's sister. He could only see bad things coming of this. He ignored the box and continued to follow the group into another room. When he entered he wouldn't have been surprised if his jaw became detached from he head. It was a whole room devoted to the exhilarating and astonishing grand piano in the center. There were bookshelves lined with music books and binders and Alice went right to it.

"Ooh," she cooed at the shelf. "Can I pull out books that look promising?" Emmett bounded over to the shelf as well and Alice turned to confer with him. "What do you think, is he Fiyero material?" They looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Hm," Emmett stared at the shelf. "Is he a Javert?"

"No…he needs more angst," she pulled out a book. "Moritz?" she asked.

"Maybe."

Different names flew around Jasper's head and suddenly Alice was sitting at the piano as Edward flipped through a book, "We all have our own songs," he began to explain. "Some of us have more songs than other but for the most part we have one song that we have an extreme connotation to. We also do duets."

"Do you know how to sing?" Bella asked as she sat in a comfortable-looking chair. "Because if you don't, they'll torture you with vocal warm-ups and singing lessons until you can sing decently." She smiled.

"She'd know!" Alice laughed as she ran her fingers over the ivory keys, kicking her legs under the bench. "Okay," She said firmly. "Who wants to demonstrate first? Bella, Edward or Emmett?" She stared at the accumulated stack of music books waiting for an answer.

Finally, Emmett boomed out, "I'll do it!" Bella laughed and Jasper glanced at her quickly. She was still in the chair, crosslegged with Edward leaning up against it.

"Okay," Alice said again. "So, Emmett's song is 'Gaston' from 'Beauty and the Beast' and if you don't know it I'm going to smack you," she warned Jasper. "Now, Emmett, would you like to explain your connotation to this song?"

"I would, indeed, milady," Emmett laughed, then he turned to Jasper and spoke directly at him. "In my school," he said as if it was a prepared speech. "I'm a bit of a hot-shot. I'm a sports dude who also likes theater. I'm like that guy from Glee, but I don't have a pregnant girlfriend…" Bella and Edward laughed but Jasper didn't get it. Angela often talked about this new phenomenon but had luckily never forced Jasper to sit wand watch it with them. "Anyways," Emmett continued. "I'm a pretty well-liked guy. The girls swoon, the guys cheer and the teachers _love_ me. But for some reason I find it to be sort of melancholy so I took this song and added my own twist to it, I made 'Gaston' a sarcastic sort of guy who's singing about how sure, he's great and all and he's a fantastic expectorator," a laugh from Alice. "But he doesn't really like who he is necessarily…Okay, so I'm going to start…" He motions to Alice who had set up the music book at this point.

"Oh! Em, do you want it down the octave or where it's written?" She asked. Down the what-now?

"Down, please!" She nodded and pressed the starting note. "Oh, we don't really do the musical background so Alice is going to try to keep up with me…the song gets fast though…"

And then he began to sing. At first, Jasper saw it as comical – Emmett was trying to give a melancholy side to a song even _he_ knew was meant to be a rousing pick-me-up – but as Jasper listened, he remembered what Emmett had said, it was supposed to bring a different meaning to a song with a well-known connotation.

Jasper had always wished he had muscles, he was strong – sure – not badly built, but he had always secretly admired guys like Emmett with the bulging muscles that girls fell ass over tea kettle for but as Emmett sang about being "roughly the size of a barge," he sounded so miserable that it was impossible to envy him at that moment.

The song finished quickly after that but, strangely enough, on a somber note instead of the big finish Jasper knew.

It was Bella's turn next, Edward and Emmett literally had to lift her out of the chair but once she was on her feet and Alice had grabbed a new book, she explained the connotation, "This song is 'Mama Who Bore Me' from 'Spring Awakening'," she chuckled slightly. "Uhm, I feel like this song chose me more than I chose it. It sort of…explains my relation ship with uh…_my_ mom…?" She said it like it was a question, obviously she hadn't written a huge speech like Emmett.

The song was written for her. No questions asked. Every note she hit resonated like glass when tapped. Alice played slowly and Bella matched the piano on every pitch. Jasper couldn't believe that they had created this voice. Can a voice be created or does it just need to be found? He wondered.

Jasper never really got to know Bella like he had the others over the past few weeks. He knew she and Edward were meant to be together – if not forever, for the remainder of high school. And now he knew that she had a voice like no one else he had ever heard but as he listened to and thought about the lyrics, he realized that she must have some strong stuff going on at home, her mom didn't sound like the coolest cat on the face of the earth.

When Bella was finished, Emmett ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He was massive compared to her but she laughed and held on to him tightly. Then, he went over to Alice and shook her tiny frame in his big hands. "Ally!" He said excitedly – all traces of his melancholy attitude were long forgotten. "Ally, guess what?" When Alice just rolled her eyes Emmett answered for her. "It's _your_ turn!"

Bella flanked her on the left, "Alice! You should! You haven't sung in a while!"

"I don't think so…" Alice said looking pretty stubborn.

"Alice, come on! I'll play and you can sing something funny!" Edward moved past Jasper to get her on the right.

"Guys, I'm not as good as you…" They all protested and kept touching her and closing in. She closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them, she looked scared. "GUYS!" She shouted. "Take five steps back!" Bella and Emmett did as they were told but Edward stayed, grasping her shoulder tightly. "Edward!" She cried out and he was against the wall in a second. "I…I don't want to sing today…" Alice said.

So Alice didn't sing.

However, that did not stop her from forcing Jasper to do vocal warm-ups. They ran through different keys using vowels. Edward watched from a chair amusedly – things were still not completely patched between them so he found Jasper's torture rather hilarious. It was only after Jasper's voice had cracked and Edward had burst out into uncontrollable laughter that Alice had sent him away to make copies of sheet music. Bella and Emmett were more supportive. They stood by him also running the scales and giving him pointers that Jasper couldn't really keep up with but he eventually got a scale to sound rather impressive.

When Alice finally declared him warmed up, she handed him one of the songs Edward had copied. The title read "If I Can't Love Her," and Jasper was already not feeling very sure of himself.

"Don't worry," Alice assured him. "Emmett and Edward will sing with you. We'll also send you home with some music later so you can listen to it! In fact…" She turned to Edward. "Why don't you play and I'll start making a playlist!"

She hopped up from the bench and went to sit in a comfy chair where she pulled out a laptop from her bag. Jasper wondered briefly if she always carried it around and began thinking about how much pain that would probably cause her to have that weight on her all the time.

The song went horribly. Jasper had absolutely no sight-singing ability and Edward kept getting frustrated. When the finally got through one go at the song, a woman – tall and lean and gorgeous entered after a quick knock. She had caramel hair the same color as Edward's and looked like a more grown-up version of Nessie. It occurred him that _this _was Mrs. Masen, the mother of Edward and Nessie Masen.

_Talk about a MILF_, Jasper thought to himself.

"Oh! Hello!" She greeted everyone in the room. "I didn't realize you were all here!" She was wearing a pair of jeans and a flowing flowery top as. She turned to her son, "Edward, Dad's coming home tonight, remember?" She sounded pressured and tense and Jasper wondered what Edward's father coming home meant – he knew he'd head for the hills if someone told him his father was coming home but he also knew that that was not the case for every teenager in America.

"Oh," Edward blinked. "Uhm, right," He looked at the music on the piano. "Sorry, guys," he said. "I hate to kick you out…but…er…"

Mrs. Masen swooped in, "Family dinner tonight." She gave a beautiful house-wife smile. "So, I'm sure you all have homework to do – essays to write and projects to start before hell week begins and…" She didn't have to finish, everyone was milling about to leave. Emmett was stacking the music books on the shelf and Alice was popping a CD into a jewel case and putting her computer back in her bag.

Mrs. Masen nodded before retreating back upstairs, _probably to change into a 50's house-wife costume or something_, Jasper chuckled to himself as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Alice, do you need a ride home?" Jasper didn't realize he had said it until after everyone had stopped moving and stared at him. Alice was the only one who didn't think this was out of order and accepted the ride joyfully and announced that they would be listening to her new CD of show tunes music.

**Sorry it was so annoyingly long. Next few chapters will be simpler to follow, I promise.**

**Review?**


	8. An Operatic Tragedy

**Disclaimer: I don't own Little Women or Twilight.**

**A/N: So, I'm actually still alive…buahahaha. Don't kill me. Just read it. It's long and rambling but so is everything else I write…**

Chapter Eight

An Operatic Tragedy

When Jasper drove Alice home that evening, the car was silent. Neither of them talked and neither of them knew why the other one didn't talk. They didn't listen to music though the CD Alice made for him was still warm from the computer. The only sound was an occasional, "Turn here," from Alice and the corresponding turning signal.

Eventually, they reached a road where Alice said, "Stop." There was no house to be found and Jasper appeared confused. "Don't worry about it," Alice insisted. "I need to walk from here because my mom would _flip_ if I you dropped me off in front of the house. She already gets embarrassed by Bella's truck." Jasper nodded and let her out with a quick goodbye.

Later that night, after dinner, Jasper made slow but sure progress on cleaning his room for when Peter and Charlotte would be visiting so he put in the CD Alice had made for him. The first song he recognized from the first crew day and he miraculously came to the inference the song was called "One Day More". The next one was a mixture between rock and classic show tune, a woman interjected with the writing of a letter and the male lead sounded like he was under a lot of pressure.

As he started hanging up clean laundry, a slower song came on. A voice crooned about a woman named Johanna before a different man jumped in. He paused briefly when one of the lyrics caught his attention. Silent and motionless as the grave, he took in the lyrics and rode out the wave of emotion that closely followed them. Alice and Bella had said that the songs everyone had chosen had emotional connotations and Jasper wondered if this is what they meant. He almost felt like it was a sick joke and that Melanie had told Angela had told Nessie who told Edward who told Alice who put the perfect song on a CD and gave it to Jasper. It was just too perfect to be completely innocent.

At that moment, Melanie appeared at his door. "Jasper, you okay?" She asked him. He turned and looked at her with sharp, accusatory eyes. "Okay," she sighed. "What did I…wait, what the hell are you listening to?" She asked him.

"CD Alice made me." He said roughly. "Did you tell Angela?" He asked suddenly.

Melanie laughed good-naturedly, "Well, Jasper, as Angela _is_ my daughter, I tell her a lot of things…seriously, what the hell is this…?"

"I don't know…something about a girl named Johanna…did you tell Angela about…my…my…" he struggled to find the word. "…Her?"

His substitute-mother's face went soft and caring quite suddenly as she said sweetly, "Of course not, that's a very private thing for you, Jasper, and I understand that…" She took a step toward him but he looked away and she understood. "Why do you ask?"

"This song…" He shook his head. "It's just too perfect…"

Melanie nodded. "Well, maybe you should put it away for right now?" He shook his head and as Melanie started to continue about her business, she said, "She's the one that's not gone forever, Jasper…she's the one you _will_ find one day…" He nodded and began to put the shirt in his hands onto a hanger and she left him alone.

"Crap!" Jasper swore to himself as he pulled open a drawer. "MEL!" He shouted. "MEL!"

Angela appeared at the door. "Mom's out, what's up?"

"My blacks!" Jasper groaned. "Where are they? I need black clothes!"

"Uh, you've been hauling shit around for the past few days in them, Mom washed them so they wouldn't smell like complete shit." Angela explained.

"Where are they?" Jasper cried out again.

"Jeepers creepers, Jasper, keep your shirt on. They're probably in the dryer, Mom knew you needed them today." She rolled her eyes as he passed her quickly to bound down the stairs. "Oh, by the way," she called after him, also pounding down the stairs. "Alice called, she needs a ride to the show tonight! I'd call her back if I were you."

Jasper grabbed the phone off the table in the hallway as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen to get the laundry. He looked through the past calls and dialed the one with her last name. The phone rang a few times before, "Brandon residence, Cynthia speaking, who's calling please?" The mature words came out of a tiny voice on the other side.

Jasper cleared his throat as he opened the dryer door. "Uh, this is Jasper Whitlock, can I talk to Alice?"

"Oh, hi, Jasper!" the little girl said happily. "I've heard lots about you. I'll go get Mary, one second!"

"Thanks!" Jasper said as he tugged out some towels and a pair of black dress pants all tangled together. Then he was left to wonder who Mary was.

Then, the chiming voice of Alice came over the line. "Hey, Jasper! My God, your number was hard to find in the book, you know you're not even in there? Anywho, glad y'called. Bella's truck broke down so Edward's gonna take her instead of me because he's borrowing his dad's Aston Martin Vanquish and all that good stuff about cars that I don't understand – I got your number from him, by the way…how did he know it? I thought that was weird. So, anyway, can you drive me to the show?"

Jasper couldn't help but laugh at the rushed pace Alice spoke at. He tugged some more pants from the dryer along with a plain black tee-shirt and said, "Sure, I can drive you…I don't have an Aston Martin _or_ a Volvo though…will your parents be embarrassed by my car?"

Alice sighed, "Probably, but they'll just have to deal with it. So, curtain's at eight and call is six so come get me around…five-ish?" She sounded rushed but also calculating. Alice fascinated Jasper.

Jasper jogged back up the stairs and smelled his shoulder as he entered the living room and Angela rolled her eyes at him. "Uh sure," he agreed, sniffing himself again, "You _are_ going to have to give me your address though," he trailed off as he started up to the second floor and then his attic, "I don't think I can find your house again, I mean it _is_ in fancy-pants land." Jasper grabbed his deodorant from the dresser and rolled it quickly onto his armpits then sniffed again and concluded that he now smelled better. He was about to return the deodorant to the dresser but glanced at his backpack and tossed it in with his water bottle.

"Oh, right! I keep forgetting you don't know where I live," Alice giggled and she recited her address. "You can actually drive down the road we stopped at the other day if you don't mind." Jasper agreed that he would and told her he would see her soon.

After he hung up he began to freak out. At this point, Jasper was pretty sure he was going to explode one of these days from liking Alice so much. He had never _really_ liked a girl before and for a while he had thought he was gay because, while he had had his flings, it was always so boring for him and he had always wanted something more. Then, a girl came along – smart, pretty, fun-loving, with a little baggage of her own – and she was kind to him and she had opened up to him and for that, he couldn't help but be a little love-struck.

Angela returned to announce that she had successfully heated up soup and he was welcome to it if he so desired. The butterflies pounding against his stomach told him no, but his logical reasoning told him he'd need all the strength he could get.

The road Alice lived on was a dirt road off the main road. The first sign of life didn't come for a few minutes of driving at 15 or 20 miles per hour and it was a beautiful cabin with a family playing out front off of the porch. It was a small clearing but enough for the apparently young couple with a toddler. He kept driving after deducing that this was not Alice's house. A few more houses passed by and finally at the end of probably a mile long road, he came to a fork with only two driveways and pulled into the one on the left, like Alice had instructed him to. There were two cars in the driveway already and another car in the driveway of the other fork.

He put the car in park, turned if off and got out. He had never been to a girl he liked's house. He had been on a few dates but they would either meet up somewhere or wait outside. He had never met the family of a girlfriend – except for his first girlfriend when he was approximately 5, but that did not count. (For anyone wondering, her name was Katherine but somehow did this not lead to 18 other girls named Katherine.)

He crossed the driveway behind a big, black, overbearing SUV to the mansion-like house. He jogged up the front porch steps and wrapped his knuckles heartily against the maple wood door.

The door opened slowly and a small, bright face with blue eyes brighter than a clear sky looked at and scrutinized him. He was at a loss of what to do but then he remembered he had two younger brothers and knew exactly what to do. He went down on one knee and looked her in the eyes and said, "Hi, my name's Jasper. I'm a friend Alice's, but she never told me she had such an _adorable_ little sister."

The girl giggled outrageously and then opened the door all the way and said, "My name is Cynthia and I'm five. You have to call Alice Mary because that's what we do here. I don't know why, but she's Mary…"

Cynthia was cut off from an older female voice coming from the kitchen, "Cynthia, who's at the door, let them in, darling." The voice soon gained a body as a vibrant, thin woman wearing an apron that would not have looked out of place in the 1940's. Jasper stood immediately as her brown hawk-like eyes surveyed his attire and appearance. "You must be Jasper." She said in a nonimpressed sort of way. "Alice is upstairs, you can wait down here." She turned to the young girl, "Cynthia, go get your sister." She then pivoted and returned to the back room.

As Alice's mother disappeared – he assumed that's what she was anyways – he couldn't help but notice that Alice definitely got a lot of her more attractive genes from the woman who had given birth to her. If he was with his old friends, he may have referred to her as a "MILF".

His attention was turned away from the mother he'd like to…well, you know…by her daughter who was actually in his age range. She descended the stairs quickly wearing a black skirt and tanktop, across her chest was a small bag and over her arm was a black jacket.

The MILF re-entered and frowned slightly at Alice, "Mary, if your father sees you, he'll have a heart-attack."

Alice gave a small smile and spoke acidly, "Well, he won't see me then, will he?" She turned then to Jasper and said, "Hi Jasper, how are you? I see you met my mother already and Cynthia. She said you said she was adorable and she is, isn't she?" Jasper nodded lightly realizing that there was definitely something amiss in this perfect and pristine house. "Anyways, let's get going!"

She took his arm and began to drag him out of the house but Jasper remembered what he had been taught by Melanie and attempted to throw pleasantries as he exited the house, "It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Brandon," he cried then shouted to the disappeared young girl, "Nice to meet you, Cynthia!"

As her sister's name escaped his mouth, Alice closed the door and led him by the hand to his car. As Jasper turned on his headlights to back out, he recognized the car next door. "Alice, do you live next door to Mike Newton by any chance?"

"Oh yeah," she replied happily as she fiddled with his CD player and looked in the slot above for any interesting CDs. "He's at all the functions of the rich elite of Forks, we hang out sometimes…less now then when we were kids but he's cool."

"His driving bothers me," he informed her pointedly as she squealed over a CD. They were traveling up the dirt road now and on their way to Port Angeles High School. "He looks like an old woman behind that steering wheel and drives like it too…"

Alice gave a half laugh and scrunched her nose to think about it and then began to laugh, "Y'know, I never realized it, but you're right!" She pressed play, and Radiohead's Amnesiac began to play, "Dude, this is so funny that you have this! My friend from like two years ago burned me like three Radiohead CDs on a whim after knowing me for like four days. It was epic!"

Jasper smiled and they talked about Radiohead for at least half the ride.

When they got to the theater, things were in minor swing. Edward was moping the stage with Bella and Emmett and Laurent were doing other final checks. Alice began to set up in the booth and so Jasper attempted to look purposeful.

Opening night was a tumultuous buzz of actors and stage crew and audience members and moms and costume crew and orchestra players. After everything was preset backstage and in the wings, the crew gathered on the stage and it reminded Jasper of that fated first day.

Esme spoke first, "I can't believe how far we've come from drawings on paper and predisposed stereotypes. This show is going to be truly magical and while Victoria may hit that high note and send it into the rafters, it's all of you who will make this show magical it's all of you who _have_ made this production magical. The actors are going to get all the credit, make no mistake, but it was you who were all here these past two weeks lugging this crap on and off and on again and cursing yourselves for building it so damn heavy and if Bella and Emmett and Jasper still have jeans that aren't covered in paint, it's a miracle. You have been, honestly, one of the most phenomenal crews I've worked with in a long time and everyone here knows I don't hand that out every year, I usually take this time to give last minute notes and run around like a crazy person but I feel completely reassured this year, I feel like everyone has everything under control and that I don't _have_ to run around like a crazy person and," tears came to Esme's eyes as she began to choke up. "I just love you all so much and I can never thank you enough for all the time and effort you've put into making this show magical. So, break a leg, crew and can we call 15 and get ready to open the house?"

Everyone clapped and Alice practically leaped into Esme's arms for a hug center stage. Emmett closed the main rag curtain leaving them on the apron to go back upstairs. Patrick went around fist-bumping everyone before he too joined the small group in the booth.

Edward double-checked that everyone was ready and set to go and called the time to the cast and then he too disappeared behind the dividers to open the house. He returned later with headsets for Emmett and Laurent and then disappeared again but not before calling five minutes.

Ten minutes later, lights dimmed and Alice's voice came over the speakers, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Forks and Port Angeles High School Theater Workshop's production of _Little Women_…" the speech included copyright rules and smoking laws until, "…now sit back, relax and enjoy our opening night performance of _Little Women_."

At that moment the orchestra began with their Overture and from that moment on, it was a blur. A constant rerun of exactly what they had been doing for the past two weeks and a long list of scenic movements and Laurent instructing him on when to go with what. He didn't dare breath or stop focusing until Professor Bhaer professed his undying love for Jo for the final love duet and even then he was still on his toes because there was still so much to do.

He was oddly happy to not have a headset, while he wanted to be on the inner loop on the going-ons of the show he knew he would not have been able to make the show run smoothly if he had been listening to Alice's voice all night.

After the show, the wind down was quick. Actors had actually hung their costumes and handed their wigs to the right people and disappeared into the crowd of loving and adoring fans. Charlotte and Peter would be there soon. Edward flashed his keys dangling on his finger and said, "Diner anyone?" Everyone whooped and there was a scramble for coats and bags and cars. Alice hung back with Jasper to make sure things were preset for act one the following afternoon and she closed the curtain and turned off the worklights with astonishing authority then she turned to Jasper sitting in the front row and said, "Wanna go get some diner-food?"

Jasper obliged happily and took the stage stairs two at a time to walk next to her. "It was a good show, right?" he asked and she turned to look at him with a funny, calculating look on.

"What would you do if I said no?" she asked suddenly, her voice soft and low.

"Well, quite frankly I'd be a little offended but I'd blame Laurent," he replied lightheartedly and smiled. "Why do you ask?"

She shook her head and replied, "Oh, nothing, there was just something odd about how you phrased that question is all," she laughed a little. "But, uh, yeah, the show ran really nicely."

They got outside and the cold, evening April air chilled them slightly. They were almost across the parking lot when Jasper summoned the courage, for which, he had been searching for months. "Alice," he asked as he stopped suddenly.

She turned with a confused look and gave a small, questioning, "Mmm?"

He didn't have words. He couldn't even give up on the moment now because he had lost all sense of speech and basic lower body movement. He couldn't even continue to walk to his car like it had been a fluke.

"Jasper? Is something wrong?" She asked as she took a step towards him. She pushed up his mop of curly blonde hair to feel his forehead and his hand stopped hers there, holding it to his forehead. "Are you feeling alright? You look a little flushed, we don't have to go to the diner if you don't want, I mean –" and in that moment, he cut her off with a kiss. It was a soft peck but it was enough to stifle her for even a moment.

She looked, wide-eyed, into his own blue orbs and attempted to read his dark face her eyes shifting wildly. "Jasper," she said cautiously. "What the hell was that?"

Jasper had no idea what to do, had he mistaken signs and just followed his own heart? Were they not on the same page? Would this ruin the rest of the run of the show if they couldn't even look at each other?

He went on a limb.

"That," he said tapping her nose lightly. "Was a kiss," and he kissed her again in the same way then pulled back again. "And that was no _ordinary_ kiss," he continued as he recalled a conversation from a while back. "That was a _thimble_."

Weeks ago, Alice had been telling a story about a girl who used to go to PAHS and how her boyfriend had given her a thimble on a chain like Peter Pan gave to Wendy out of innocence and Alice had expressed that it was one of the most pure and naïve things ever to occur in cinema or theater.

He kissed her again and a fourth time and she began to cry.

"Jasper, I'm not enough…I wasn't enough for James and I can never be enough help to you," she said gently before she tore away from his gaze and walked over to the car.

Jasper hung his head slightly, gathered himself and then strode over to the car for a silent ride to the diner.

**A/N: Ahhhh! Pauvre, Jasper! Quel domage! Okay so, it's been literally forever and a day. Review anyways?**


	9. Look How Far I've Come

**Disclaimer: Oh guess what I don't own. "A Small Umbrella In the Rain," **_**Little Women**_**, or **_**Legally Blonde the Musical**_**. Now that I think about it, I only kind of own the characters. So there.**

**A/N: Hey guys, maybe one day I'll actually update my story in a timely fashion. But now I'm on the kick again so I may finish this soon. I'm just glad my writer's block is gone! Well, have fun!**

Chapter Nine

Look How Far I've Come

The sheer fact that everyone who had been at the diner on Thursday night was able to get up Friday morning and be at school by the first bell should be awarded a trophy in and of itself. (Never need mention of the vast amounts of coffee needed to tide everyone over…)

Friday night's performance was – if possible – even better than opening night. They had done it once before and now the energy (summoned out of a mystical black hole for the most part) had been quadrupled and everything ran more smoothly – if possible. Jasper hadn't had a chance to talk to Alice alone since Thursday night – she had sat on the opposite side of the crew table at the diner and apparently had gotten a ride from someone else. Jasper couldn't help but feel like the world's largest idiot.

The show went on though and Friday night, after the show, as Jasper was returning headsets to the booth via the hallway where everyone met and hugged after the show, he heard his named called out. He turned to find the culprit and found little Cynthia Brandon running toward him wearing a very red, very fancy, very adorable little dress. Jasper dropped to his knees at once and Cynthia, surprisingly enough, wrapped her arms around his neck. He chuckled lightly and hugged her back. "Hey, Cynthia," he said sweetly as she stepped back. "Did you see the show?" She nodded and looked around. "Did you like it?" She looked at him again and nodded. "Where's your sister?" She shrugged and looked around again.

"Where's Edward?" She asked very fluidly.

"Oh," Jasper said, and he too, joined the small search for Edward. "I don't…Oh! There he is, talking to your mom!" He pointed in the direction of the MILF and Cynthia took off towards them. Jasper chuckled again and stood up. He turned around to continue to the booth but nearly ran over Bella who smiled and blushed.

"Sorry about that!" she said shyly. "You're really good with kids, y'know that?" She told him.

Jasper smiled back, "Yeah, I know…I have twin brothers at home…"

Bella raised an eyebrow, "Really? Are they going to come see the show?"

"Uh yeah, I think they're coming tomorrow night I think…"

"That's super!" Bella exclaimed. "Well, I gotta go, Charlie's here and I have to try to squeeze a little cash outta him for the diner! You're going again, right?" She didn't wait for an answer though, she just tore off through the crowd again and Jasper continued on his quest to return the headsets.

He entered the booth singing one of the show's songs under his breath under the impression he would be alone in the booth and docked the headsets.

"You're getting better." A soft voice praised him and he turned looking like a deer in the headlights. Alice was standing very close to him and he had no idea how to respond. "Jasper, don't take this the wrong way, okay?" She said in a low voice. Jasper, confused took a step back but she pursued him and, on tiptoes, put a hand behind his head to gently lean it down to her own before kissing him gently. Despite its chastity it was a far more passionate kiss than he could recall ever sharing. She brought her other hand to his face and rubbed her finger on his cheekbone in a caring and methodic manner feeling the smooth skin one way and the rough stubble as she stroked against the grain.

Without realizing where one kiss ended and the next began she kissed him again and Jasper encircled his arms around her waist in a tight grip that brought them closer together. The hand on his face moved up to his short ringlets, sweaty from work, entangling her fingers in them as the kiss deepened.

Her tiny fingers tap-danced on the back of his neck, her nails tickling his scalp just behind his ear making him suddenly groan. At the sound, Alice pulled away from him, pushing him away slightly. Then, not looking him in the eye, she touched his shoulder with a forced smile and whispered, "I mean it, Jasper – don't take that the wrong way."

He frowned, "What exactly do you mean by that?" he asked her gently but she just shook her head and began out of the booth. "Where are you going?" Jasper said, turning to her. "Can't we talk about this?" Jasper surprised himself with this. He, generally, was not a man of many words.

She turned to him sadly, "My parents are here."

And for the second time in two days, Jasper Whitlock – who always had a come back – was left speechless by Alice Brandon.

The next morning, Jasper was dreaming a dream he subconsciously hoped he would remember. He was frustrated by the fact that he was dreaming about Alice performing less-than-lady-like deeds upon him in a far-too-short skirt but he couldn't help it. The hint of Alice having a tongue (another brilliant, ground-breaking discovery of obvious body parts that Alice Brandon has) had changed his life literally overnight. In his dream it was a wonderful, little pink tongue and it was literally making him crazy.

Then, oddly enough he was awoken by a disturbing amount of weight being thrown upon him and he sat upright very suddenly to find himself face to face with a skinny, lanky brunette with beady eyes blinking inches away from his face.

Charlotte's face broke out into a smile very slowly and Jasper knew that smile, he was about to be made fun of and he quickly realized why.

Jasper's dream had left him in a compromising position that he wished terribly Charlotte would ignore.

Charlotte turned happily to Peter who stood in the doorway. He too was lanky and also wore a grin of knowing.

"Your mom told us we could come up and wake you," she said her hot breath fanning his face. "We'll sit on the stairs and wait for you if you'd like a moment to sort yourself out." She had no hesitation in her words and was not at all embarrassed by her discovery and, if he recalled correctly, that was why Jasper liked her.

Without waiting for a response, Charlotte jumped up again – almost knocking Jasper's head whilst doing so – and skipped out of the room to leave him alone.

He sighed as the door clicked shut – he would never live this one down.

Peter and Charlotte held hands in the back seat of the car and chattered away as Jasper asked the basic conversational questions. They were frightfully adorable; they finished each other's (_Sandwiches_? Sentences. Why would I say - _Sandwiches?_ That time I was going to say sandwiches.) sentences and they looked like the perfect delinquent couple.

As he drove to the theater, he found he barely needed to concentrate on the road anymore (except for the obvious traffic reasons) and began to think about Alice and the night before. The diner had been a repeat of Thursday night. She sat at the other end of the table and basically, for all intents and purposes, ignored him. At the end of the night, Edward had driven her home and he was given Bella to take with him.

"So, Jasper!" Charlotte called from the back seat. "Have you got a _girl_friend?"

Jasper glanced into his rearview mirror to glare at Charlotte, she just grinned back and reminded him to keep his eyes on the road then added, "By the way, if it's a boy, that's cool too, we don't judge, you know that!"

Jasper almost stopped the car short.

He drove past the high school into a small-business district in Port Angeles to let Peter and Charlotte out. They would roam the streets for a few hours while the Saturday matinee went on and then Jasper would be back to pick them up later. As they got out of the car, "Don't die and don't get arrested for public indecency!"

Charlotte responded wittily, holding on tight to Peter's hand and kissing his cheek, "Damn, how does he always know what I'm thinking!"

"L-G-F-U-A-D." Peter respectably quoted in a descending melody and returned the kiss.

They shut the doors and Jasper bid them farewell and turned around to go back to the high school. He was making perfect time and was very proud of himself.

Their third and penultimate show was inspiring and Jasper found it to be a pity that the only people who were there to enjoy it were a bunch of grandparents, random senior citizens who can only kind of appreciate the show because they kind of remember the story from their childhoods. There were also young children in the audience who were marvelously captivated but would naturally forget about it within a month or two. The only thing anybody could hope for was that at least one of these children got home and said, "Mommy, I wanna be an actor when I grow up!"

The cast went home for three hours but the crew stayed to order food. Jasper gave Charlotte and Peter a call to ask what they would like and where they were.

"Haiii, Jazzy-pants!" Charlotte's loud voice called through the phone and Bella, who was standing near enough to hear, snorted a laugh.

Jasper grumbled, "Hi, Char. Have you guys eaten yet?"

"Nope," Charlotte replied. "We're looking for some nomnoms though, any suggestions?"

Jasper smiled at the phrase 'nomnoms' and caught Alice's eye from across the room suddenly, she stared back in an incredulous way and then gave a coy smile herself. She was teasing him. He said back into the phone, "Crew's ordering dinner, wanna come eat with us?"

There was a loud gasp, "AND SHATTER THE ILLUSION?" Bella, still nearby, chuckled again. "I can't believe you would even think that that's an option! I-I- your audacity is ASTOUNDING." Jasper started to crack up, still staring Alice down from across the room, she was now wiggling her eyebrows in an amusing manner.

"Well, then," Jasper said, turning away from Alice so he could concentrate. "If you'd rather not break the spell or whatever…"

"Shatter the illusion!" Charlotte insisted.

Jasper gave a face, "Whatever," he said plainly. "If that's what you'd prefer, there's a great diner or a few nice restaurants around. There's probably a pizza place…does Peter eat pizza again?"

"Yeah, sometimes, look, don't worry about it. We'll find a place to eat, no problemo. Call us before you're leaving to get us and we'll tell you where we are!"

Jasper spoke then very seriously, "Hey, Char, tell Peter I'm sorry, yeah? That I had to this all day…"

"Hey, Jazzy-pants, don't worry about it, man, we're cool, we're chill, we're going to eat…RIGHT HERE! YES. THIS LOOKS PERFECT, PETER! Alright, give us a call later, fool, baiii!"

The line was dead before Jasper could process it all.

Bella laughed again as Jasper shut the phone and she commented, "She's a firecracker…"

Jasper smiled too, "Yeah, she is…actually, she's certifiably crazy." Bella smiled, not knowing that he wasn't joking. "But yeah, they're not eating with us, they found a place…apparently…"

"I heard." Bella said and they smiled at each other.

Jasper leaned down suddenly to whisper in her ear, "So, when the hell is Eddie-boy gonna ask you out, exactly?"

Bella's face went bright red and she shook her head looking at him, "No, it's not like that…" Jasper raised his eyebrows in speculation and knew that Charlotte would be proud. "We-we well – I mean – well, you know, _if_ he were to – oh, I don't know."

"Tonight. Party. Dance. With. Him." He enunciated before taking off in the opposite direction. Being around Peter and Charlotte revived in him an amazing curiosity and outgoing charismatic personality that he couldn't get enough of and so, he decided to bask in.

He was on the stage the next thing he knew, standing in front of a beautiful fence that he recalled painting white only to have it stained with tans and pinks the next day. He placed a hand on it, still smiling giddily.

"That, I believe, is the happiest I have _ever_ seen you." Alice called out from the other stage entrance.

Jasper smiled a little, "Ah, no, you see, I'm always happy," he lied obviously. "I just never show it." Alice crossed upstage of the fence and met him at the gate center stage and pulled it open as it only swung one way.

"Well, that's odd and I suppose that would make you enigmatic?" She was doing it again, she was approaching him slowly like she had in the booth. She was going to tell him to not take it the wrong way but that was the only way he found he could take it. He wanted to just be able to hold her like he had the night before and he realized too late that his face must have fallen with this prospect.

Alice was now standing basically under him, she was almost a foot and half shorter than he was and her head only almost came to the center of his chest. She rested her forehead on his bottom-most ribs and sighed. He stood, stoic and barely breathed.

"Jasper, will you do me a favor?" she mumbled into his black, probably sweat-smelling shirt.

"Uh, yeah." Jasper answered hoarsely.

"Could you kiss me?" She pulled away from looking at his shoes and looked up at him indeterminably.

"Uh," Jasper said. "Yeah," he nodded. "Yeah, I could do that." He took one of his comparatively large hands and placed it on her cheek before bending down to press his lips to hers. They looked awkward, standing there with too much height difference, him bent over and her on her toes to reach him. Then, her hand connected with his shirt, right on his breastbone. The place they tell you to compressions when learning CPR. The hand stayed there, small and warm before it moved up to his collarbone and then to his neck. They broke away then.

They stared at each other for a moment before Alice took his hand and they stood, in front of the gate and the empty audience, holding hands.

"_And if we had that in common_…" Alice sang under her breath.

"…_That one small thing in common…_" Jasper trailed along with her.

"_Love could be like a small umbrella in the rain_…" Alice replied.

"_When people discover passion, they've come across something rare, this fervor they have in common, can shelter them anywhere,_" Professor Bhaer – a young man named Jack, a senior like many of the leads – sang with love. "_Though the rest may be rough…with enough passion to spare…I think we have more than enough, enough to make a marriage…If we dare…_"

An incredulous Jo – Victoria – asked the obvious question: was he proposing. To which, the professor had a jumbled and uncertain response, "Yes! No, yes. I do not mean today or tomorrow. I can wait a year – two years maybe." He reassured her, "I'm a very patient man."

In the next few lines, as Jasper stood out of the way of the cast preparing to bow. He thought about the lyrics and how much he now realized they meant to him.

"_I won't be sweet, won't be demure…_" sang Jo.

"_This I adore, this I prefer!_" The suave professor insisted.

"_I'll speak my mind you can be sure…_" Jo warned yet again.

"_I'll be enchanted to the core._" That professor, Jasper thought, what a classy guy.

They sang more about umbrellas and rain and metaphors for love and suddenly the show was almost at an end.

"_Sometimes when you dream,_" Jo reprised on an empty stage candidly to the audience. "_Your dreams come true. In extraordinary ways suddenly a day can be so amazing. And sometimes when you yearn you burn the air… and someone else feels the flame… and then you are not the same…_" The professor creeped back on stage.

"Jo?" He asked. "We are all waiting for you." Then, he offered her his arm and they walked together through the gate. The lights dimmed and the performance was over. Then, in that same instance, even though the lights came up on the actors bowing, the show was over. The whole show. Everything was over. Jasper sighed as he thought of this and without intending to, began to tear up. He shocked himself when he had to reach up to wipe his eyes.

Crew ran out for a bow and Jasper couldn't stop smiling when he heard additional uproarious applause and a whistle he could recognize anywhere as – surprisingly – Peter.

The curtain closed after the cast took a final bow and out in the hallway, everyone exchanged whoops and laughter and hugs and songs and promises to see each other at Victoria and Laurent's house in no less than half an hour for the theater geek party of the year.

When basic things had been put away away for strike the next morning, Jasper went out into the reception area to find his friends only to be bombarded by them. He miraculously enough managed to catch Charlotte as she jumped on him – quite literally. She wrapped her legs around his waist and while Charlotte was slim she was also very tall nearing six feet. She kissed his forehead and then both his cheeks in a way only Charlotte can and shouted, "I thought you were the best in the whole show! Damn, when you moved that desk I got _goosebumps_!"

Jasper laughed louder than he could remember him ever doing and said, "That's lovely, Charlotte, and I'd love to talk about my stunning performance as crew member number 5 when your boobs are _not_ in my face and after I have seen a chiropractor for the inevitable damage you've caused." Charlotte, without an ounce of grace, climbed off of Jasper making it far more difficult than anyone else would deem necessary.

"Don't worry, I'll jump on your back later and that'll straighten it out!" Charlotte assured him as she gave him another congratulatory hug.

Peter approached in a much calmer manner than Charlotte – they were always yins to each other's yangs and day by day one could never be sure who the manic would be and who the sensible one would be.

"Congratulations, man," Peter said with a caring smile before pulling him into a hug that was not very masculine but it was perfect for them. They were the same height and for all intents and purposes brothers so they didn't really care how they exchanged hugs – nor did they care if anyone else minded.

"Thanks," Jasper choked, emotional again about the end of the run. "Thank you."

A voice behind them, "Jasper," Emmett said. "You're coming to Laurent and Victoria's right?"

Jasper nodded, attempting with vigor to make sure no one knew how emotional the show was making him. "Yeah, I'll be there." He responded. "Em," he then continued. "These are two of my best friends ever Peter and Charlotte. Peter, Charlotte, this is Emmett McCarty one of the best Assistant Stage Managers I think _ever_ existed in the world."

Emmett beamed. "I think you're full of shit, man, but thanks anyways!" He replied. "Anyways, I'm putting a few things away and when I'm done, you can totally follow my car."

Jasper appreciate this, but he had a better idea, "Thanks, does Alice have a ride? Maybe I'll just drive with her and she can give directions…"

Emmett thought for a second, "Oh, yeah, duh, that's actually a lot easier. Besides, a good number of cars from the school are going there, y'know? It'll be easy to find."

"Thanks, Em, I'll go make sure I'm driving Alice, have you seen her?"

"Yep, she's in the booth, I was just talking to her."

Jasper spotted a diversion, "Thanks, Em! Hey, Bella!" She turned quickly from a tall boy with russet skin and large muscles to rival Emmett's. "Bells, this is the girl I was on the phone with earlier, Charlotte!" Then he dashed away to let Bella deal with Charlotte's vivacious attitude toward life.

He entered the booth empty handed that evening and before he had gotten to the stairs he was greeted coldly. "You sure got a welcome."

Jasper knew exactly what Alice was thinking – everyone had a habit of confusing who was dating Charlotte, himself or Peter. He had diffused situations like this many times before. "Oh yeah, my friend Charlotte's crazy. Her boyfriend is the calm one today, who knows what they'll be like tomorrow." Alice stared him down with a skeptical look. "She may wake up wanting to plant flowers or paranoid about the microwave timer. Or both in the same day." She began to walk to him, stopping at the top step. "Peter's better at handling her, they've got this weird relationship. Charlotte's a great friend though, no matter what."

That assuaged Alice's jealousy without having to mention it but she still just looked at him. She looked at him. Just staring with big, green, sad eyes and said, "I don't know if I can do this."

She began to dodge him out the door but he caught her on the second step with his hands on her shoulders. "Guess what?" He said. She looked away. "I don't either." She stopped at that. Everything in her body stopped it seemed. "I don't know if I can play this stupid game with you where you decide if you're going to take me or leave me because my heart can't handle that, okay? "

She looked away even more. Looking over her left shoulder. "I don't know if I can be with someone who's gonna string me along like you do. I don't know if I can wait around for someone whose kisses I literally dream about. I don't know if I can do this either. I'm not trying to pressure you here, but you're treading on really dangerous territory because I don't know either."

Alice moved her head, never looking at him. "What I do know, is that we have to live with each other for the rest of tonight and tomorrow. Then, you don't have to think about it anymore and you don't have to know."

The door banged open and Jasper let go of Alice, turning quickly. Charlotte was there in the doorway. "That was a lot lighter than it looked…" she laughed. Jasper just smiled at her antics. "Anyways, we gotta go. Melanie's gonna bring us back to the dreaded social worker and we'll see you in the morning!"

"You guys aren't partying it up?" Jasper asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, you know, we're not allowed to party on our meds…Peter has recently developed claustrophobia but they drugger won't change his dose. Ah well, probably for the best, we don't wanna be crashing your shindig." She was amazing in how well she could ignore the tension radiating off of Alice. She hugged Jasper tightly and said, loud enough for Alice to hear, "I'm so proud of you, Jazzy-pants. I really am. You were amazing. Like I said, I've never seen a desk moved with more grace and precision." Jasper laughed. "But I'm most proud that you don't reek, Jazzy-pants. You used to smell weed and smoke and guess what?" she paused for dramatic effect. "You don't anymore!" She giggled and hugged him with renewed force. When she finally pulled away from him, she addressed Alice. "Look, I don't know who you are, but you're in a dark room alone with Jazzy-pants so I'm going to jump to conclusions – you'd better be so good to him that it hurts you inside because when Jasper commits to something, he loves it and cares for it so much that it hurts inside." She turned back to Jasper. "See you around." Then she left.

**A/N: Did you enjoy that cameo appearance by Jacob? I did. What did you think of Peter and Charlotte? What do you think of Alice/Jasper at this junction?**


End file.
